14 DAY TRIAL // Katy McCaffrey, the woman whose stolen iPhone communicated back by uploading photos to iCloud, is relieved to hear that the thief has been apprehended, and that the phone will be returned to her as soon as possible.
As reported earlier this week, Katy McCaffrey had her iPhone stolen from her on a cruise ship by a person who was later identified as a staff member.
The thief’s crucial mistake was that he had used the stolen phone to take photos of himself, his pregnant girlfriend, his beer buddies, and other social activities he was engaged in on a regular basis.
iCloud, a service shared by iOS handsets worldwide, allows images taken with the phone’s camera to be pushed to the owner’s Mac, Windows PC, or iPad.
The feature can be turned off as easily as toggling an On / Off knob in the iPhone’s Settings menu. The thief was oblivious to this aspect.
When these images arrived to Miss McCaffrey’s computer, she took immediate action.
Knowing that the photos she had floating around her Photo Stream would eventually lead to the apprehension of the suspect, the woman started a public Facebook album featuring all the images she was receiving, hoping Disney Cruises would identify the thief.
And identify they did. Disney Cruises officials said (via The Telegraph). “We take these matters very seriously. We have a zero tolerance policy for this type of behaviour. We recovered the phone and we’ve been in touch with the guest.”
The thief has been placed on “administrative leave”, Disney Cruises said. The phone will be returned to Miss McCaffrey as soon as the ship returns to port.
Editor's note It appears that stealing Apple hardware has become a tough practice in recent years. Not only has Apple helped dozens of customers recuperate their lost devices using the Find My iPhone and Find My Mac applications, now iCloud technology is doing the same. By simply running its course.
Photo Stream has not been designed as a security measure, though its core functionality not only shows the potential whereabouts of the device, but also the faces of the people close to the suspect or, in this case, the suspect himself.
