Sally Hootnick collected her family and luggage from the airplane at JFK International Airport, but forgot her iPad. She believes she left it on her seat after grabbing her stuff from the overhead. Ouch! After leaving two messages with American Airline's lost and found department, Hootnick did what the rest of us would probably do: she began to stalk her stolen iPad.
According to a story reported by The Post-Standard on Syracuse.com, Hootnick fired up Find My iPhone via MobileMe after getting no-joy from the airline. She found her iPad quickly: no longer at the airport, it was sitting in someone's home in Long Island. Hootnick recontacted the airline, as well as the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Nothing happened.
"I was frustrated after days of this. So I sent a message to the iPad," Hootnick said. Hoping to intimidate the person into returning her iPad, she typed, "I know where you are and I called the police."
"The next day," Hootnick claims, "my iPad started traveling. I was watching it everyday" and "becoming a little obsessive."
As she watched from her home computer, Hootnick saw the iPad travel back to the JFK parking lot, where it sat for two days. Then, it traveled roundtrip from JFK to Los Angeles, and then roundtrip from JFK to San Francisco.
Suspecting an airline employee was in possession of her device because of this travel pattern, Hootnick traded more emails with the airline. Finally, she threatened to contact a consumer protection agency, and the next day a representative from American Airlines contacted her for information. Hootnick then had two follow-up conversations with a police detective that the airline requested get involved.
American Airlines won't comment on Hootnick's case as it is the subject of an ongoing investigation. Ed Martelle, speaking for the airline, said the company is not responsible for lost or stolen items, but does not condone theft. The case is now in the hands of the Port Authority.
Hootnick, however, has just gone ahead and purchased herself a new iPad.
viscara
July 05, 2011 at 2:50pm
The real moral of the story at the end was that this lady had to buy a new ipad. Perhaps if she followed the same obsessive ambition as trying to locate her ipad as she should have with being "Responsible" in remembering were she left it she may not have to buy a new one.... But then again at the time it may have seen more important to be the first one in the isle to get out the planes door.
jknowlton
July 01, 2011 at 12:42pm
They are now “investigating” lol Easy. Track who was working that flight, and then track who was working on the flights that he saw the Ipad traveled. And you have a winner. Will at least narrow it done to a few.
sebastiancrain
July 01, 2011 at 5:58am
that is a pretty fascinating story! the only time I have ever had to use it was when I woke up at 2:30 AM and went to check the time when I realized my iPhone was gone, so after turning my room inside out, I hopped onto macbook to search for it, finding that I left it safely at my friends dorm. So I left her a message saying I knew she had it, and calmly went back to sleep. it really saved my butt, because I would've been freaking out all night.
cwatts13
June 30, 2011 at 6:39pm
Actually last night my girlfriends’ iPhone was stolen from her. We were at a bar and someone grabbed it out of her pocket and she hadn't noticed. I was tracking her iPhone on my iPhone and I saw it was in the bar parking lot. So I was searching and searching and I saw these girls walk out. I questioned them and they said they didn’t have the iPhone. But I looked at Find My iPhone and it showed the phone was in the car with the girls. I sprinted after them but they sped off. We called the cops and they were no help at all. So we took matters into our own hands. We got into our car and locate exactly where they were at and I locked the iPhone and sent it a message saying, "I know you girls have it.. Give It or I will call the cops" (from the email Find My iPhone sent me). They didn't do anything, or try and contact us back and so I went to the girl’s apartment complex. I wasn't sure what apartment exactly it was because there were a couple floors but I went to the second and pounded on her door at 4am. No response, we had the cops called on us. We explained everything and she said she couldn't do anything, though the girl came outside. I yelled in the girl’s direction and the cop told me to shut up and the girl walked back inside. They were telling us they could do anything because they needed for us to file a report. So we tried and we were given the run around by every person we called. We went home, slept for an hour and continued to try and find it. We went to the police and they gave us a report number and she said they would do an investigation but it would take a while because they had more important things. So we drove 30 minutes to the girl’s house and called the cops so they could possibly help us. We waited for the cops for an hour and a half to come and meet us. We were extremely mad it took so long but in the mean time I was doing some investigating. This old man came outside to walk his dog and I asked about any somewhat of party girls because she was at a bar. He immediately pointed out the room that we suspected earlier this morning. So we waited and I showed the cop I had it located on Find My iPhone on my iPhone and I told him I suspected it was this girl and told him I was investigating and he noticed the girl peek out her window when we were talking and so I turned around and I noticed it was the girl. She came downstairs and tried to slyly leave but I told the cop it was her and he questioned her and she got scared and got the iPhone and gave it to the cop. The cop said we couldn’t do anything about pressing charges for theft because there was “no evidence it was stolen.” We got the iPhone back at around 3PM today.
brandonwalkermedia
June 30, 2011 at 5:32pm
lol, great story! The Find My iPhone app continues to be a great way to recover "MISSING" iPhones, or iPad. I have friends who find it "FUN" to "HIDE" my iPhone, the other day i found it missing so instead of trying to find out who took it, i fired up my MacBook Air and sent a message to my iPhone saying "hand it back" next thing i know my iPhone is flying at me! Bottom line Find My iPhone is great to use (but can be dangerous!
