What should I do if I have a stolen device?

[ph33nyx]

I purchased an iPhone off craigslist just for the purposes of using it at work for reference when people had questions trying to troubleshoot issues. When I bought it, all I really cared about was if it powered on and was in decent shape. Well, needless to say I got home discovered an iCloud lock on the device. I ran the IMEI number and found that it had been reported lost\stolen.

The phone had been restored, so if memory serves me correct the "Find my phone" feature was not activated.

Not wanting to be in possession of a stolen device, is there a way that I can contact the original owner to return it? Or, if they have replaced it have them remove the lock?

I have no problem with returning it to the rightful owner and eating what I spent.

Thanks

[dilbertaz · Accepted solution]

First thing you should do is report the seller to the local police department, provide any information you can.

Then you should be able to contact Verizon (assuming it was a Verizon phone) with the IMEI and see if the original owner can be tracked down.

How to find the owner of a lost or stolen iPhone | iMore

[Loquat]

I agree with Dilbertaz...I'd hand it over to the police.  They have protocols for issues of such.  You definitely don't want to get caught in the possession of a stolen device...they're really cracking down on that...at least in my area...

[mama23dogs]

What? 

iCloud lock and Find my iPhone are kinda the same thing.  It can't have "icloud lock on", but the "phone had been restored, so if memory serves me correct the "Find my phone" feature was not activated."

It is not possible to restore to factory without removing the activation lock.

And how did you "run the IMEI number"?

[Weth]

It is because Find My iPhone was active that it is now locked. Agree with handing it over to police and/or Verizon and get it out of your possession.

When you do a restore on a phone that had Find My iPhone still active, it will wipe the phone, but you cannot activate it without the previous appleid information.

[mama23dogs]

I Have owned several apple devices, currently an iPod touch and iPad Air.    I gave my iPad mini to my nephew.  I sold my older iPod touch to a facebook acquaintance.   In order to restore these devices to factory/reset and wipe all contents, I had to remove "find my iPhone" with my passcode.  

IT is possible the owner did not remove the phone from his/her icloud account, even though they removed find my iPhone from the device itself.

Before you inform the police, contact the seller and ask them to remove the device from icloud by logging in on icloud.com and remote erasing the device.  If they can't do that, then they didn't come by the phone honestly.