So, say you just got a shiny new iPhone 3G.  Say it’s an awesome 16GB version.  Yeah, you’re the cool guy now.

Say you then leave your iPhone in the restroom at a concert, and 3 minutes later its gone for good.

Sad panda.  Sad panda, indeed.

You think to yourself…”No worries!  My phone has GPS–they can track that shiz!”  This is a very logical assumption for you to make.  But, sadly, without a 3rd party app installed, you’re out of luck.  Here’s some info so you don’t waste your time:

  • AT&T phone support cannot/will not locate your phone for you
  • AT&T in-store representatives, despite what the phone support might tell you, cannot/will not locate your phone for you
  • Calling Apple’s iPhone support line at +1 (800) 694-7466 will not, sadly, tell you any more information about the whereabouts of your phone.

However, there is some marginal amount of hope for you.  Not that I was one of those folks who douchebaggedly left their phone in the bathroom at a rock concert.  But if I were one of those folks, I would have found out that Apple supposedly has a team of people who work on this with local authorities.  Here’s what you need to do (so far as I was told someone told me):

  1. File a theft report with your local police
  2. The police have a special phone number (or they can call the number above) which is an internal stolen goods team at Apple
  3. That team can compare flag your serial number in their system, and watch to see if someone else registers the phone
    • If whomever stole your phone (or the poor soul who buys the stolen phone) decides to actually use the phone, they’ll need to have a valid SIM (unless of course they unlock or jailbreak it)
    • In order to use the iPhone they’ll also have to register the phone again in iTunes
    • This will send all the information about that person to Apple and the authorities

If all goes as planned, the police would actually be able to recover your stolen phone.  Maybe.  I’m somewhat skeptical that they will actually take the time to go get your phone.  But I’m hopeful The person I spoke to is hopeful.


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