My iPad was stolen a couple of weeks ago. I filed a police report, used Find My iPhone to locate the iPad, and was subsequently featured on the local news for a story…sadly, none of these routes did anything to recover my property. (Makes me think Find my iPhone is more of a cool novelty than a useful utility; the police couldn't get a warrant, because the app shows a spot on a map, doesn't give a specific address. But I digress…)
I remotely locked my iPad, but did not wipe it (I consider that route to be giving up), and called Apple. The representative said that they could flag my serial (contrary to what the internet believes), and that when someone tries to activate it, they will notify law enforcement.
No one at Apple Support seems to know how this process works. The latest guy I spoke with said that it is a small department, and there's no way to directly contact any of them. (I pictured like 3 old-time detective looking guys in suspenders, smoking cigarettes and wearing beat up derby hats…but I have problems ::shrug::).
Do any of YOU fine people have any insight into this process? I have an idea, but I'd just like to know if anyone has ever recovered a stolen device by this method.
Best Answer
Regarding the flagged serial number, I had this done for a client but nothing ever came of it, so either it wasn't ever activated or there is no official procedure for our country.
On a side note regarding tracking down a physical address. If your iPad is set to check email accounts such as google or your own hosted mail. As soon as it's online it'll put the originating IP in the logs which is something the police might be able to get a warrant for. Google actually lists all current active connections and 'recent activity' from IP and how long ago. It's listed in the bottom right corner (details). This could be useful in tracking down an address.