Hello there! This is the full version of my iPhone saga. If you have an iPhone, it is very important that you activate Find Your iPhone and know how to use it. This is why……..
Wednesday, 14 May
I met a Knit Sib at Kneader’s on Avenue B at about 3:45. We chatted away, ate a high calorie dessert and shared knitting projects/plans. We were seated in a booth. Another friend of ours (not a Knitter) showed up with his son. They bought some drinks and desserts. If you are familiar with Kneader’s, they sat at the long table between the booth and the soda dispensers. My Knit Sib left, I kept talking to our other friends. Sometime during this time, I pushed my knitting bag which pushed the keys to the wall end of the table and they were lodged in the space betweent the end of the table and the wall, about a 1″ space. I thought it made a surprisingly loud noise. I plucked them up and set them on the table closer to me. I think that is when my phone fell off the table.
The other friend, his son and I all talked for about 15 or 20 more minutes. We got up and exited through the patio door. I was pulling my wheeled tote with one hand and had my keys in the other hand. I walked on the asphalt around to my car, they went to theirs. I loaded up my stuff and left.
I stopped briefly at Walgreens then went home. I sat down in my chair and realized my phone wasn’t in my pocket. It wasn’t in my knitting bag or in the wheeled tote. I went back out to the car, no phone. We got rid of our land line several months ago. I was the only one who used it, and the only thing I used it for was to call my phone do find out where it was. Funny how those phones get lost under the paper, the mail, etc. When I couldn’t find it, I immediately went back to Kneader’s.
It was no more than 30 minutes since I had left. I looked under the table, no phone. It wasn’t under the benches or adjoining boothes. I asked the two ladies working at the counter. They looked at each other, said neither had seen it, no one had turned it in. One went to the manager’s office and returned, saying that it wasn’t there. I went home again.
By this time it was about 5:40. I retraced my steps in the house. Looked in all of the usual places where I may have tossed it-the bed, bathroom counter, makeup table, washer, kitchen island, recliner, etc. No phone. I put the foot rest on the recliner up, tilted it upside down and only found random stitch markers and runaway beads from recent knitting projects. No phone. Curt came home and I told him the story. I used his phone to try to call mine. It went straight to voice mail, like it does when you power it down. He went to my car and moved the seat around. There are lots of nooks and crannies around car seats. No phone. We both left around 6:15 to different destinations. I wanted to go back to Kneaders again because I couldn’t believe it had vanished. I wanted to run my hand along the back edge of the table and check at Walgreen’s.
On the second trip to Kneader’s, no phone, althought they had cleaned under the table since my last visit as a toy a child behind me dropped earlier was no longer there. I went to Walgreen’s, no phone. I got Panda take out and went home.
By this time the phone had been gone for at least an hour and a half. I signed onto my ipad and opened up Find Your iPhone.* There were 3 iphones listed, 2 iPads and my MacBookAir. I had activiated this app on my previous 2 phones. All were listed as offline. I locked the one that I thought was my current phone. All 3 were offline. The prompts let you sound an alert and leave a message that will show on the screen when the phone is activated. I did this. I thought about calling the non-emergency PD number. Because I had no other phone I couldn’t call.
I checked on it periodically through the night. All three phones remained offline. I tried at about 6:30 morning, they were all 3 still offline. I tried about 15 mintues later and it was online. It showed its location on a map. It was off of 24th Street in the Manors east of Kennedy Pool. * I immediately thought to myself that I would just drive over there, knock on their door and asked for it. As soon as I thought this I realized how stupid that would be. I got my morning iced coffee and went to school, deciding to talk to our SRO as soon as I got there.
I saw him by the bus lane and explained what had happened. We went into Admin and signed onto icloud and onto Find my phone. It still showed that it was at that location but it had moved slightly. Our SRO, Cpl Resendiz was awesome. He took over the computer and used Google maps, and eventually Zillow with the GPS location and send an alert and a new message on the screen stating “this phone has been reported as lost/stolen to YPD and an officer is on his way to pick up the phone.” He also left a number so that the person who had it could call to report it. I had a custom case on the phone that was a photo of a unique sweater that I had designed. I took it to show it to him because it is easily recognizeable and unique*
He went to the address and explaned to the man who answered the door the situation and that the phone could either be in their house or the one just to the south. The GPS location showed it against the far southwest corner of the house. The man said neither he nor his wife worked at Kneaders, they did not have any kids who worked there and they had not been there yesterday. He went to the house next door.
Before he reached the door, one of the parents in this house had seen his YPD car and had called her daughter at her school to find out what she wanted them to do about the phone. Apparently this parent had heard the alerts and read the screen messages. The SRO took the phone and went to her school. He had called our Admin and told them to let me know that he had the phone was still investigating.
He pulled her from class and interviewed her, getting her version of the story, which I won’t go into her, except to say that the details didn’t add up. He talked to the General Manager at Kneader’s about the situation. He returned to Cibola with my phone. It was undamaged and without its case*, which was a surprise to me. He interviewed my further and asked me to write up a statement. I noticed that my start up screen photo had been replaced. The light settings were different. *
I watched the progress of the phone from the house where he found it back to the other high school then to my school via the GPS trail on Find my phone. When you see this signal, your phone is within 3 feet of that location. I did not know that it was that accurate. I did not know that I could have called the non-emergency PD number, I thought it was pretty much a lost cause. I was not familiar with the app and how to use it.*
So—here are my lessons learned. *******
1. Activiate this app on your phone and know how to use it.
2. When you first realize your phone is missing, sign on to Find My Phone and lock it up. Send the alert and a screen message. If there is more than one phone listed on this app you better lock them all. It is very easy to unlock them, you will be prompted to enter the code you set when you locked it up.
3. Retrace your steps in your house, your car, where ever you think you may have left it.
4. Search again.
5. Send another alert to your phone from the app. Send it multiple times This is better than calling it. If you call, the thief will turn your phone off especially if the screen registers the incoming call as from “Home”. There is nothing they can do to stop the alert tone.
6. Do not drive to the phone’s location and think you can knock on the door and ask for it. To do this would be DANGEROUS and STUPID. Call your Police Department’s non-emergency line. This is what they do. They know how to work with theives. They do it everyday.
7. Do not be so naive as to think it will return in the case you had, however special you might think it is. The person who took it is a thief and will have discarded your case. Do not be surprised that they have changed your settings.
8. Check to see if they took any photos with your phone or made and calls or texts. You should report this to the investigating officer.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who has an iPhone. I am sure that other smart phones have similar programs. You need to act quickly. Don’t be naive. You need the help of your very capable Police Department. Our SRO, Cpl Resendiz rocks!
