Athlete Tracks Down Snatch Thief Who Stole Her iPhone With 'Find My' Feature
Speaking to SAYS, Chrissy said she didn't hear the snatch thief approaching on his motorcycle.
By Sukhbir Cheema — 19 Jul 2024, 03:10 PM
An ultra marathon athlete in Malaysia recently recovered her stolen iPhone after using Apple's Find My feature
Ultra marathon athlete Chrissy, originally from Myanmar and now based in Kuala Lumpur, managed to recover her stolen iPhone 12 Pro Max with the help of the Find My feature on her Apple Watch Ultra 2.
The snatch theft took place on 13 July, while she was cycling uphill along Jalan Ulu Yam Bharu around 3pm in Selangor.
Speaking to SAYS, Chrissy said she could not hear the snatch thief approaching on his motorcycle as traffic was busy, with many cars passing by.
"Suddenly, I felt something grabbing my trisuit back pocket and [I reflexively] smacked the thief’s hand. He lost control and almost crashed but sadly he managed to speed away," Chrissy explained, adding that she managed to see the thief’s face.
Chrissy decided to find the thief to prevent similar incidents from happening to other cyclists
I thought about forgetting the phone [...] as it's just an old one and [riding] back home to erase the phone's data from my iCloud. "But then, something went through my mind; if I don’t do anything now, I might have to go through this again and other cyclists might be in trouble too if the culprit is still out there roaming around," she said.
She later lodged a police report and notified the police that her iPhone was trackable.
"I showed them that I was tracking my iPhone with the Find Devices app on my Apple Watch Ultra 2, which was displaying the distance as well as the location address," Chrissy said.
Accompanied by seven policemen, she tracked her iPhone to the phone's location shown on the Apple Watch map, which uses the Find My network.
"The police detained him at a house as we arrived at the location and they managed to retrieve my iPhone," she said.
Chrissy praised Apple's Find My feature, which she often uses to locate misplaced items at home
"This Find My feature is very useful not only for tracking but also for finding my iPhone when I forget where I placed it," she said.
The new S9 SiP chip on her Apple Watch Ultra 2 enabled Precision Finding. It played a crucial role after it was able to provide an exact address and direction.
Chrissy said that for an endurance athlete such as herself, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers more than just tracking capabilities. Its battery life is sufficient to record her Ironman races and 100km ultra runs in Low Power Mode, and she appreciates the super bright display.
Chrissy is particularly fond of the Siren and Emergency SOS features, which can be lifesaving in dangerous situations.
In the end, Chrissy's quick thinking, combined with the advanced technology of her Apple Watch, led to the swift recovery of her stolen iPhone and the thief's arrest.
Here's how you can enable the Find My feature on your iPhone and iPad:
- Go to Settings and tap on your name at the top.
- Tap on "Find My".
- Tap on "Find My iPhone" and turn it on.
You can also turn on "Find My Network" to locate your iPhone when it's offline, and "Send Last Location" to automatically send your iPhone's location to Apple when the battery is low.
Activation Lock is automatically turned on when you enable Find My iPhone, preventing anyone else from activating and using your device even if it's erased.
Last year, a man from Subang also used the Find My app to track down the culprits who broke into his car to steal his laptop:
