Hi-Tech Up-Country Cops Use Google Map To Catch Female iPhone Thief

[webfact]

Hi-tech Up-country Cops Use Google Map To Catch Female iPhone Thief

Thai police goes hi-tech and uses google map to hunt a woman who snatched an iPhone. The police located her house and found the suspect plus seven more stolen mobile phones.

SURAT THANI – May 22,2012[ PDN]; Pol.Col.Suriya Narkkaeo-Surat Thani police and Pol.Lt.Col. Somkit Maikong with police team arrested Mrs.Petcharat Kongkaeo age 37, address: 51 Moo 3, Plaivas, Karnchanadit, Surat Thani.

She was arrested at her house with eight mobile phones; iPhone and other brands plus a .38 caliber miniature pistol.

Full story: http://www.pattayada...e-iphone-thief/

-- Pattaya Daily News 2012-05-24

[hm1973]

Not exactly ground-breaking technology used here.....its called the "Find IPhone" app which every IPhone user should have installed as standard. Very easy to locate your phone with this app.

[dksharron]

Fantastic.

Is it, or can it be done with all cell phones of a certain technology level, whether iPhone App., or a Samsung App, etc.?

[Kananga]

Not exactly ground-breaking technology used here.....its called the "Find IPhone" app which every IPhone user should have installed as standard. Very easy to locate your phone with this app.

Exactly. You dont even use google maps. Its all built into iCloud. All my apple devices are on it and primed at all times. iMac, iPad and wife's iPhone. As she is 'Thai' at time keeping I can see exactly how far away she is from where I am supposed to meet her when she says she is 'nearly there' and has just only left the house. Invaluable!

[belg]

hi they ? google maps excists 5+ years

finally got their way to some thai cop and it makes big news

5555555555555555

[blackthorn2005]

Should they be publishing her home address?

[Thaddeus]

Should they be publishing her home address?

Saves them making notes, if they want to find her again, they can just look at this thread.

Hi-tech or what.

[Kananga]

Should they be publishing her home address?

They have to prove they weren't lying!

What's next? Thai school kids finding their way to school with their Shenzhen tablets?

[LivinLOS]

Newsflash.. Someone tells their arse from a hole in the ground.

Edited May 24, 2012 by LivinLOS

[horsewell]

Technically, this sort of thing is possible with all phones. I have even read that the phone doesn't even have to be switched on, but don't know if that one is true or not. The phone company can triangulate based on relative signal strength, I don't know how often that is being used. You don't need to be making a call at the time as the phone is in constant contact waiting for a call.

I once saw a insurance company advertisement that said that they can find you if you had an accident and you call them on your mobile, so I suspect that the technology is not unheard of in Thailand.

It's just that Apple made it accessible to everyone. However, I have seen jealous boyfriends turning the feature on to check up on out of country girlfriends... that's a pretty ugly use.

[Kananga]

Technically, this sort of thing is possible with all phones. I have even read that the phone doesn't even have to be switched on, but don't know if that one is true or not. The phone company can triangulate based on relative signal strength, I don't know how often that is being used. You don't need to be making a call at the time as the phone is in constant contact waiting for a call.

I once saw a insurance company advertisement that said that they can find you if you had an accident and you call them on your mobile, so I suspect that the technology is not unheard of in Thailand.

It's just that Apple made it accessible to everyone. However, I have seen jealous boyfriends turning the feature on to check up on out of country girlfriends... that's a pretty ugly use.

You can disable it on the iphone. Or they can buy their own phone.

And the phone isnt in contact waiting for a call if it is turned off. if it is off it is untraceable. The best you can do is use the position it was in when it was turned off.

[how241]

Not exactly ground-breaking technology used here.....its called the "Find IPhone" app which every IPhone user should have installed as standard. Very easy to locate your phone with this app.

Good police work, at least they caught her.

[NanLaew]

Newsflash.. Someone tells their arse from a hole in the ground.

... then finds keyboard and posts sh!te.

[dbman]

Good on them for catching a thief - it does not matter if they are not like CSI Miami.

We can be so negative some times.

[bobl]

Meanwhile in the US, the combined efforts of 10 bib fail to recover the police chief's offspring's iPhone...

http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_20675820/berkeley-police-chief-orders-detectives-track-down-sons

[nikster]

Just today at the gas station I realized I didn't have my iPhone on me. dam_n did I forget it somewhere? Whipped out the iPad, find my iPhone, and within a minute had located the stray phone at home, fell out of my pocket in the car.

As simple as this is, it's really awesome technology when you need it.

And Apples implementation is also just fantastic. Enter your password, and all your registered iDevices show up - my iPads are on there (all three of them, two are for the kids), my phone, and my laptop. If this laptop gets stolen, there's a pretty good chance I'll be able to track it down.

Snooping on your gf/bf is not that easy - you'd need their iTunes user name and password.

Edited May 24, 2012 by nikster

[lomatopo]

Does this Apple service work via WiFi? That is to say, the iDevice is attached via WiFi to a home network, say, and the MAC address, which is registered, can be matched to an IP address. But most of us get a different IP address every 24 hours, and wouldn't the ISP have to be involved to match an IP address to a customer's address?

And what if the location is a ten floor apartment building with 150 apartments? Some of the real-time geolocation services based on IP address are pretty lame, most locate me ~ 3 Km away at best.

I know that the police can, with the help of a GSM service provider, estimate the location of a handset, within 3 meters, based on the IMEI, but this requires a SIM inserted, the phone turned on and the IMEI located by service provider. This is a timely and expensive exercise.

And I think only a few agencies can locate via the GPS chip?

So that leaves the WiFi option, in this case, I guess?

I have to say that, with an Android device and WiFi enabled (GPS disabled, SIM removed) my location on Google Maps is identified within ~ 5 meters, but it does point to my neighbor's house across the street.

I re-booted my router and got a new IP address, and I was still located within 5 meters. Maybe they match the current IP address to an account address, Yikes. I connected to a WiFi AP down the street, darn if it didn’t show me nearly on top of that house.

[USNret]

For those devices with GPS (iPhone, iPad), they geolocate by GPS but it is enhanced by wifi. I believe the big mapping companies have geolocated many wifi home & public signals; if your device detects these wifi nets they can triangulate to improve on your GPS results.

I just brought up iCloud to detect my Macbook & iPhone. Interestingly, my Macbook (with wifi on) was immediately mapped directly to my apartment building. The iPhone (with wifi off) was mapped about 1/2 mile away, using strictly GPS. After several minutes, the location updated and now both devices are shown correctly at my apartment building. Of course, no one knows which room I'm in. But if I were to take any pictures, they would upload to iCloud, and I could remotely view the pix on my other iDevices.

I've used non-Apple services to geolocate, and they work directly from the suspected physical location of an IP address. Since my internet provider is about 400 miles away in Osaka, these non-Apple services figured out I was 400 miles from my actual location. Apple is clever enough not to make that mistake. IP address is of no help in calculating your physical location.

********* Edit ***********

Regarding lomatopo's comment: "And I think only a few agencies can locate via the GPS chip?" you are overlooking the obvious. The device itself knows where it is if it has GPS (or triangulation of wifi or celluar towers). The device reports its own location to iCloud via any internet connection it may have, either by wifi, Ethernet or cellular service. No spooky agency involvement is needed.

Edited May 24, 2012 by USNret

[lomatopo]

Regarding lomatopo's comment: "And I think only a few agencies can locate via the GPS chip?" you are overlooking the obvious. The device itself knows where it is if it has GPS (or triangulation of wifi or celluar towers). The device reports its own location to iCloud via any internet connection it may have, either by wifi, Ethernet or cellular service. No spooky agency involvement is needed.

OK, that makes a lot of sense (that the device reports its GPS location to the "service", presumably over the WiFi connection). I wasn't suggesting the NSA was involved in determining my location.

FWIW, I had disabled my GPS, and removed my SIM, re-booted my phone, turned off the Google location service, and then my location was not detectable, on Google Maps. As soon as I insert my SIM, (but leave WiFi off) turn on Google Location service it shows my location as the cell tower I am currently using, which is ~ 900 meters away, which is a bit surprising. There is no triangulation of cell towers in this location service! Although that can obviously be done at some expense.

Edited May 24, 2012 by lomatopo

[Baerboxer]

Good on them for catching a thief - it does not matter if they are not like CSI Miami.

We can be so negative some times.

I agree dban. A taxi driver recently lifted my iPad on the way to Suvanabhumi for a very early morning flight. (Very clever professional thief, just enough distraction). I reported the theft and was able to provide licence plate and id info courtesy of estate security. I returned after 6 days away and the police had left a message for me to call them. The investigating officer was off-duty but still took the trouble to call us back. The driver had been questioned but of course denied everything. These thiefs pass them on very quickly and their contacts know to quickly get rid of sims etc etc before they sell them on.

The police here showed a lot more interest than I would have got from police in the UK based on past experience. So indeed, "good on them" for catching a thief.

[robblok]

For some reason this never works with my iphone it always says its offline. Even though its next to me on my desk. I login to icloud, find my iphone and it never finds it. I really wonder why.

[robblok]

Never mind... user error. Got it to work.

[JAS21]

Today I downloaded Where's My Droid and Where's My Droid Commander. From my laptop I was then able to

1 ... make my phone ring and

2 ... show my phone location on Google maps exactly ... that took 2-3 minutes.

Now I need a App to hide those two Apps ... I know how to change the name of an App, which I suppose is better than nothing ... anyone know how to hide an App ..... thanks

[Kananga]

Today I downloaded Where's My Droid and Where's My Droid Commander. From my laptop I was then able to

1 ... make my phone ring and

2 ... show my phone location on Google maps exactly ... that took 2-3 minutes.

Now I need a App to hide those two Apps ... I know how to change the name of an App, which I suppose is better than nothing ... anyone know how to hide an App ..... thanks

On your wife/girlfriend's phone?

[JAS21]

Yep ... On her Brand New Phone .... which actually is the 1st Android phone we have had.

She was impressed when I showed her what the App would do ... hope she remembers if she looses the phone ... hope not as it was 21000Baht. Galaxy Note and Direct from Samsung.

Now I wouldn't mind putting the Apps on Step-Daughters phone.

Actually it would be useful to see where my wife is as I don't like phoning here when she is driving as I not sure she can set up the Bluetooth yet ... another lesson later I think.

Ok so Mr Kanagna ... can you help with suggesting an App .... thanks ... Hiding the App would make a 'phone finder' less likely to know about the App so he wouldn't remove it ... Hopefully

Edited May 25, 2012 by JAS21

[BabySun]

Similar story made rounds on travelers forums couple of months ago.It happened in BKK KaoSarn Rd.

One fresh US bacpacker,college kid - arrived.He checked into guest house dorm - in KSR.

There was another guest there already - young man from Pakistan,who checked in same morning.

Our bacpacker had ipad and iphone with him.before going to town he left ipad under the pilow to charge it.

When he came back in afternoon - surprise!surprise! - his ipad was gone,and Pakistani young man had checked out.

Nobody else in the dorm.

Our backpacker concluded,that his new Pakistani friend is probably the suspect and rushed to police to start action.

The action which followed was quite similar to Cohen brothers recent popular movie:

Pakistani man was very happy with his new toy and he could not resist temptation - he played with it,he knew it or not - but he was broadcasting his location.

He was already far away on Soi Nana in another Pakistani friend's room,not registered.

Our backpacker with the very helpfull team from Tourist Police - were quickly there - it did not help that the crook meessed up with his name,and he denied

everything!Evidence was there in his hands - beeping!

The most happy was not our backpacker but Tourist Police Team! - they solved the case efficiently,they could not believe their luck.

Unfortunatly - crooks learn fast as well,

better do not leave your iphone/ipad under the pillow,when you stay in dorm!

This story looked like publicity stunt by Apple marketing department - it looked so neat.

[BabySun]

And here is even better one,if it goes this way - they will catch all thieves in no time.

http://www.digitalone.com.sg/multimedia/photo/multimedia/1334

[Crushdepth]

Yep ... On her Brand New Phone .... which actually is the 1st Android phone we have had.

She was impressed when I showed her what the App would do ... hope she remembers if she looses the phone ... hope not as it was 21000Baht. Galaxy Note and Direct from Samsung.

Now I wouldn't mind putting the Apps on Step-Daughters phone.

Actually it would be useful to see where my wife is as I don't like phoning here when she is driving as I not sure she can set up the Bluetooth yet ... another lesson later I think.

Ok so Mr Kanagna ... can you help with suggesting an App .... thanks ... Hiding the App would make a 'phone finder' less likely to know about the App so he wouldn't remove it ... Hopefully

If you just want location, enable the Google Latitude service (might be installed on the phone already) and share her location with your own account. Otherwise, try Cerberus (not free, but only a couple of $$). You can opt to hide the app, and it has an web interface that lets you track the phone and issue remote commands (lock phone, take photos, record sounds, set off alarms, remote wipe etc etc). You can also set it to email/SMS you if an unauthorised sim is inserted (the SMS option is best, as it will reveal the new phone number).

[MaxwellsDemon]

There's another app (cant remember name and too lazy to find) that you can use which is more useful and even more fun.

If someone tries to enter your passcode (assuming you have one) and after 3 failed attempts it will grant access to the phone anyway. Why? Stops them from giving up and wiping the phone through USB. Then it starts taking photos off the front and back cameras to show where they are and the perp's face. Genius.

[DavidMavec]

On the same wifi network, the Apple locator service can find my iPhone and my iPad but not my Macbook Air (it happens to be my home network). That seems quite odd to me, any ideas??