Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
renee_rn
Newbie

My sons iPhone 6 was stolen at school on 4/6/15. My son did have the Find My iphone app but when he logged in it showed the device as being off.

I made a police report and contacted Verizon. I elected not to cut the service to the phone thinking this is probably a kid and at some point they will turn the phone on (There was also a access code on the phone) or turn it in when they figured out they were not going to be able to use it. So I have been watching it daily and had the Find My Iphone app set to notify me when the phone came online. Today my daughter receives a text from the phone. She sent me a text so I again logged into Find My iphone and it still showed it offline. So, I then logged into my Verizon account and looked at the usage log. It showed where she had received the text from the phone. So one question I have is this, on the usage log there is a box that says "Message Type" in the beginning it would show "text" in that box. Now that the phone has been texting my daughter today it shows just a line in the box like this "-".  Does this mean they are using a texting app of some sort? Again the phone continues to show it is offline through Find My Iphone and on my data usage is shows 0. Any suggestions?

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Re: Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
Snn5
Legend

Does the app not give a last known location?

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Re: Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
mama23dogs
Legend

IF you locked the phone, as a lost/stolen device, it should message to alert you it is online, even if for a short time.  It should also show its last known location/s.  Use that information to recover the phone, with police assistance if needed.

quite possible the kid that has it, is hoping you will erase the phone so he can use it, so keeps turning it on and checking lock screen.

Re: Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
bzporter
Newbie

I had a similar situation. My son's phone was stolen last week from high school as well... We got a couple pings, but the thief is definitely experienced, as most high schoolers. So your theory of a kid taking it and maybe returning it, forget about it. We locked the phone and blocked it immediately. My son begged me not to wipe it, because he too was under the impression that the thief is a kid and will return it. We filed a police report with the schools police officer. He says he has lost count how many phones have been stolen in past month. Anyway, couple days later, a friend of my son's calls the house, says she's been trying to reach him. She sent him a text and said someone replied and told her this is not my son. I immediately called Verizon. I was told after I blocked the phone, the thief would not be able to make calls or text.

She explained to me that the thief can use iMessage via wifi. But that is the only way he or she can text. I thought, maybe the text can be traced. But after researching all night on the net, the iPhone is the only phone the police can not trace via iMessage. If this isn't true, please someone reply! I don't even care about the phone anymore. I want to catch a thief!!!!

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Re: Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
mama23dogs
Legend

You should have used Find my iPhone to lock the phone, which would notify you when and where it was used last.

IT would prevent the finder from being able to use the phone for anything.

Buy reporting and having Verizon block the phone, it can't get online, which prevents location services from finding the phone.

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Re: Stolen Iphone 6 - several questions
mama23dogs
Legend

The iPhone is the only phone that uses iMessage, which is not text (SMS).

FInd my iPhone can locate an iPhone over wifi if it is using iMessage.

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