Monday, 2 weeks ago, my company issued iphone (which for the most part, is just my toy... its used as a level (got to love the level apps) and a wifi scanner/survey tool... plus data and internet when i'm too lazy to bring my laptop to work) was stolen at a job site.

I sorta had a gut feeling about which of the site's clients stole it from the waiting room, but couldnt prove it.

It was the start of a really crappy week.
We called it a few times, but whomever stole it probably turned it off, since the calls started going straight to voicemail.

A few days later, i was doing something on my blackberry, and i realized all my contacts had been deleted.
I said "****, thats weird" and restored them from a backup.

The next day, they were gone again.
In their place was 11 contacts that I didnt know at all.

And thats when it hit me.

Both my iphone and my blackberry have Google's mobile sync service. The iphone via active synch, and the Blackberry via Google's mobile app.
This lets me sync and share my calenders with other employees, as well as let my laptop pull my work order calenders so i know what my schedule is... however, contact sync was turned on as well.

The thief had deleted my contacts, and added his own, and the iphone pushed them to my server.

Included were 4 aunts, his brother, his mom's cell!, his house, and his woman, and a few others...

I printed out a hard copy of them, and went back to the job site.
I spoke to the boss lady, and she, being an iphone user herself, was rather upset about the theft to start with. We compared numbers to records of clients from that day.
What a surprise... one of them matched. And it was the client whom i had a suspicion about in the first place.
I took my findings to the police department, found the officer who had my case, and no leads whatsoever, and explained to him (in small, untechnological words, and a diagram) exactly how I came to find out who stole my phone.

They're valuing the phone at replacement value (a 16gb iphone, no contract price, plus cost of the purchased apps) which was far above felony level.

Now, my iphone is going to be locked up as evidence for several months while the case goes to trial... but its worth it, I'll get it back eventually (and i'll probably frame it)


Score one for the good guys.

Dude that's awesome. Serves him right. Congrats!

Nice! Hopefully they get what was coming to them.

I had a similar thing a few years back when I lost my (then) LG VX-8300 (I think it was that one, or the 9400). Dropped in snow so I didn't hear it fall and when I realized it, it was already gone.

Fast forward a few days, and I remember I had Verizon's Backup Assistant that runs every night overnight to sync up. So I logged into My Verizon to retrieve my contact list, when I realize all the numbers weren't mine. I put 2 and 2 together, and get extremely giddy. Mom/Dad, friends, brother, GRANDMA, etc...

So that evening after work I start calling around. Friends at first, who don't know who the person is (since at this point I don't know who it is) that could have called them from my #. So I start with the brother if I recall (been a few years since it...). He doesn't know. Try Mom/Dad, no answer. So I go to grandma, the last resort I wanted to go to for many reasons but I had to. She was very nice and gave me the info I needed.

So around this time, mom calls wondering why I'm calling around asking for her daughter, etc...etc...I explain why. She at first denies her daughter did anything. I tell her I have the contact list from my phone and this is more then enough proof your daughter stole my phone. Eventually, I tell them to drop it off at friends restaurant and I won't press charges.

After getting it, I notice all my accessories are gone (case, memory card). I call and tell them these were part of the phone. Mom gets pissy with me saying she doesn't have them. She sometime after it had the audacity to tell me to stop calling or they will press charges for harassment (Your daughter stole my phone and I have the proof, dumb broad). Eventually I just decided it wasn't worth dealing with her.

Now that's awesome!

man this reminds me of a story on hofo a while back. i cant remember if it was a sprint phone or a sidekick.

some jerk stole a members phone here and started trading pictures with some girl...

at this time whatever the carrier was saved pictures on a server so you could go online and see/forward/print them. our member logs on and sees these pictures! eventually one of our OTHER members recognizes the area where the pictures are being taken and tracks the guy down. it gets VERY ugly and the police get involved (very reluctantly) i cant remember if the guy got his phone back or if anyone pressed charges but it got crazy, the mom grandma sister and gf all got involved iirc

NICE, thanks to google!@ what cant it do lol

here it is!

http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/

maybe i remembered wrong and hofo wasnt as involved as i thought

No, HoFo wasn't involved. But, the whole Sidekick ordeal was also said to be a hoax to gain traffic to his site.

Good for you, OP!

Nice job man, it was a cost-effective way to catch the thief

Sweet ending! this thread made my day

Oh wow. Howard posted my story on his site.
Thats awesome.
Thanks Howard.

you're famous!

I totally need to frame the phone once i get it back now.

I wonder if they'll give me the evidence bag its in.

I'll update the thread as the case (slowly) progresses thru the system.

At this point, looks like the guy is going to be looking at felony larceny. (Fourth degree)
In addition, my corporate counsel (whos a really big *****) is going to call the district attorney down there and see if they can add on a charge of Identity Theft (based on the fact that the iphone contained personal information, as well as links to my bank and paypal info (on some mobile apps)
Dont know if it'll stick, but in NM, identity theft is a felony with a strong restitution clause.