Miracles also happen at Christmas and Apple must be the center of attention, it only sells magical products, right? This time we have a story the real one that has a stolen car in the foreground, an unlocked iPhone and the Find My iPhone function in MobileMe that saved the day. The story goes something like this: an American had his car stolen and after being ignored by the police, he decided to use the Find My iPhone function to find it. After locating her on the map, he calls the police from another American state, a policeman is sent to find her, he arrests the suspects, one of them escapes from the handcuffs, runs over the policeman and runs away with the car. Its owner gives the police details about the location of the car, they follow the suspect and everything ends with the car overturning several times on a highway.
The story seems "fabricated" but it is real and you can find a video clip of a news presented on an American television here. I mention that OnStare is wrongly quoted as the service that helped to discover the car.
Pretty amazing Christmas Story! Early this morning my 2005 Land Rover was stolen from the Marriott in Wichita Falls TX. The local police put me on hold, transferred me around and did nothing. My iPhone was in the car in between the seats and turned on. I tracked it using MobileMe Find My Phone to HWY 287 on the way to Decatur. When they exited the highway and headed on a Farm road for Justin TX a few miles away, I contacted the Justin Police and with the help of a very savvy operator we pinpointed the car at a Sonic. While I was on the phone with her, she said the officer sees your car and is going to make the arrest. A few minutes later she frantically calls me to start tracking the car again. The officer handcuffed the suspects, sat one down on the curb while putting the other in the back seat. When he got back, the guy had Houdini'd the cuffs from behind his back to the front, fought with the officer and jumped in my car, dragged him and ran over him. I followed the car on the iPhone and directed the Highway Patrol to where he was – high speed chase ending with him flipping the Land Rover several times. The policeman is going to be fine – he is at the hospital with multiple bruises etc. The screenshot is where the car thieves ran over the policeman and escaped. I am just so thankful the policeman was not seriously hurt – I could care less about the car or the crook.
