“Pro tip for thieves: If you’re going to steal an iPhone, make sure it doesn’t belong to a famed New York Times tech columnist,” Julianne Pepitone reports for CNNMoney.
“The story unfolded on Thursday like a real-time detective caper, in which local police were aided by a tech blog, Twitter, an app and GPS,” Pepitone reports. “It began just before 11:30 a.m. ET, when Times writer David Pogue tweeted that his iPhone had gone missing while he was riding an Amtrak train. He used Apple’s free ‘Find My iPhone’ app to track it, which revealed a screenshot of his phone’s location in Maryland.”
Pepitone reports, “Tech blog Gizmodo flung itself into the chase. It posted a story about Pogue’s dilemma just 20 minutes after his tweet, and writer Kyle Wagner spent the next several hours digitally pursuing the device.”
The full story is here.
MacDailyNews Take: If there’s one thing Gizmodo‘s good for, it’s finding stolen iPhones.
Related articles:
How ‘juvenile’ Gizmodo escaped indictment in iPhone 4 prototype deal – October 12, 2011
Former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam apologizes for iPhone 4 prototype imbroglio – October 6, 2011
Apple may pursue a civil suit against Gawker Media over iPhone 4 prototype leak – August 22, 2011
Gizmodo gets off the hook in prototype iPhone 4 imbroglio; men who sold it charged – August 10, 2011
Irony: Gizmodo’s Brian Lam leaves phone in restaurant; grateful an honest patron turned it in – August 21, 2010
D.A. withdraws search warrant after deal with Gizmodo’s Chen – July 16, 2010
Court begins examining Gizmodo’s Jason Chen’s computers, devices for 4G iPhone info – June 03, 2010
D8: Steve Jobs discusses passing Microsoft in market cap, AT&T, Gizmodo, much more (with video) – June 02, 2010
Apple claims huge loss over iPhone leak; knew who sold prototype to Gizmodo same day story broke – May 17, 2010
Judge unseals Gizmodo-4G iPhone prototype search warrant – May 14, 2010
Jon Stewart blows it, calls Apple ‘Appholes’ over Gizmodo’s 4G iPhone imbroglio (with video) – April 29, 2010
Rush Limbaugh: The fascinating case of the Gizmodo guys and Apple’s 4G iPhone – April 28, 2010
Gizmodo editor Jason Chen retains criminal defense lawyer in 4G IPhone prototype imbroglio – April 28, 2010
Why Gizmodo could be in deep doo doo over outing of Apple’s 4G iPhone prototype – April 28, 2010
4G iPhone: EFF criticizes police conduct in Gizmodo raid, says invalid warrant used – April 27, 2010
Did Apple call the cops on Gizmodo? – April 27, 2010
Police may allege that Gizmodo committed felony in 4G iPhone imbroglio – April 26, 2010
Police seize Gizmodo’s Jason Chen’s Macs, iPad, more after he posted next-gen iPhone video and pics – April 26, 2010
Police probe how lost next-gen Apple iPhone prototype ended up being purchased by Gizmodo – April 24, 2010
Did Gizmodo break the law with its 4G iPhone story? – April 21, 2010
Gizmodo posts videos, photos of ‘Apple’s next iPhone’ that was lost in a California bar (w/ video) – April 19, 2010
Good thing the cops got it first or Gizmodo would’ve ransomed it to Pogue.
Gizmodo’s new line of work?
Nice take, MDN.
yes, great take!
Possible the best MDN Take ever!
“…finding stolen iPhones.” MDN – that was a very funny take.
Lool, love MDN’s take, very accurate 😄
from the article
“It was a happy ending for Pogue, but some on Twitter questioned whether the police would have worked so hard for iPhone owners who don’t write for the New York Times.”
exactly..
If it were my iPhone… i’d have used the same tactics, and driven there myself. 😉
My Gravatar should explain the rest .
my experience: stolen iPhone 4 (a week after release). Thief was uploading geotagged photos to my Flickr account – several pics over a week, all from similar GPS coordinates.
Police: “we can’t do anything with that”
You’d go all matrix on them. “Guns. I need more guns”
Wow! Scary! Boy you’re really something!!!
For all the crappy shit Gizmodo did during that iPhone 4 fiasco, they’re currently a much better, less bias site than Engadget. Engadget are the ones Apple needs to stop inviting to press events- not gizmodo
Gizmodo still sucks!
Best. MDN. Take. Ever.