Skip to main content

It turns out that Find my iPhone is really good at finding a stolen car, too

Think the Find my iPhone feature on your smartphone is only good at locating your lost device? Used with creativity, it can do a lot more than that. A Nashville, Tennessee resident used the online feature to find his stolen car, and help police apprehend the criminal who took it, according to a story from local source News Channel 5.

After stopping at an intersection, Chase Richardson was carjacked by an armed man who shouted for him to get out of the vehicle. Sensibly complying, Richardson got out, but at the same time left his work-issued Apple iPhone in the car. The criminal also demanded Richardson’s wallet and his own personal phone, then got in the car and drove away.

The police arrived after Richardson called 911 at a Walgreens store, which is when the Find My iPhone feature was called into action. The service uses GPS to generally locate a registered device, which in this case was the work phone. The police apparently used Find My iPhone in real time to track down the stolen car. A police helicopter was called in to assist after the car was located, as the thief tried to evade arrest.

Phone tracking success

This is not the first time we’ve heard about Find My iPhone being used to track down a suspect, or even about phone tracking software allowing someone to snoop on the life of a phone thief; but there’s no doubt Richardson’s quick thinking helped police quickly arrest the carjacker, and return the vehicle to its rightful owner. However, while it’s the tracked iPhone that makes this an interesting story, the best news is that Richardson wasn’t hurt in the theft.

While in this case it was Apple’s Find My iPhone service that helped resolve the situation, it’s not the only way to track a lost or stolen phone. Google has its own Find My Device service, which operates in the same way using Wi-Fi and GPS, and like Apple’s system can also be used to remotely lock or even wipe your phone. Additionally, Samsung has its own device location service, and there are third-party companies like Cerberus Anti-Theft that do the same.

Whichever you choose, we hope it will only ever be used to find your phone down the back of a couch, and nothing more serious.

Editors' Recommendations

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Does the Google Pixel Watch work with an iPhone?
A person wearing the Google Pixel Watch 2.

Google threw its hat into the smartwatch ring last year when it introduced the Google Pixel Watch, and now it's back for a much-needed encore with the Pixel Watch 2 — an updated version that proves how good an idea it is to wait for the second generation of a new tech product.

The Pixel Watch 2 improves upon its predecessor in nearly every way, with better battery life, a more comfortable design, and far smoother performance. It's enough for Google to make a mark among Wear OS smartwatches and give Samsung’s Galaxy Watch lineup a run for its money in a way that other challengers like the Moto 360 and Oppo Watch never could.

Read more
It looks like the iPhone 16 will get a big design upgrade
Someone holding the Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Following the release of the iPhone 15 Pro series, several early adopters reported overheating issues. Apple later confirmed that the problem was caused by a software bug in iOS 17, which affected some owners of the phones. The company quickly resolved the issue with the release of iOS 17.0.3 and never acknowledged that hardware played a role in the overheating. Fast-forward to the present, and it now looks like Apple plans to make hardware changes on the iPhone 16 that would make the 2024 handsets less likely to overheat.

According to Apple prototype collector Kosutami, Apple will make two changes to the next round of iPhones. On X, formerly Twitter, they note: "Apple is actively working on graphene thermal system of iPhone 16 Series to solve the heating problem existing before. And the battery of Pro series would change to metal shell, for the same reason."

Read more
It’s finally happening — your iPhone is getting RCS in 2024
iMessage on an iPhone 14 Pro Max, plus iMessage on an Android phone using the Beeper app.

Today is a day I truly didn't expect would ever happen. On November 16, 2023, Apple officially confirmed that RCS texting is finally coming to the iPhone in 2024.

Yes, you read that correctly. Starting "later next year," Apple will add RCS support to the iPhone. In other words, if you have an Android phone and are texting someone with an iPhone, you'll be able to text each other over RCS instead of SMS. That means you'll get many iMessage-like features such as typing indicators, read receipts, higher-resolution photo/video sharing, etc.

Read more