A smartphone tracker app. "Find My iPhone" has helped many who were kidnapped, raped and robbed

Man using app locates missing girlfriend who was allegedly raped

With the "Find My iPhone" app, a man managed to track his girlfriend down to a house in Hume Heights, where she was found in a stupor, lying on a mattress with another man, who is now on trial for abduction and rape. PHOTO: APPLE

 

SINGAPORE: The High Court in Singapore heard a case on Thursday (March 30) in which a man managed to find his girlfriend by using a smartphone tracker app.

With the "Find My iPhone" app, he managed to locate her after she stopped replying to his messages while clubbing at Zouk with some co-workers.

He tracked her down to a house in Hume Heights, where she was found in a stupor, lying on a mattress with another man, who is now on trial for abducting the woman and raping her on July 24, 2014.

Here are other cases worldwide where such apps proved to be helpful:

1. Abduction in California

Sherri Papini, 34, was abducted in early November 2016 during a late-morning jog.

When she failed to pick her children up from daycare and did not return home later that day, her husband Keith Papini checked his "Find My iPhone" app and located Sherri's phone near the intersection of Old Oregon Trail and Sunrise Drive in Redding, more than 1km from their home, and alerted the authorities.

She was found alive three weeks later, after being released on a rural road in Yolo County.

2. Child trafficking in China

In a country where child trafficking is common, a smartphone app has allowed police to share information and work together with the public to find missing children.

The "Tuanyuan" app, which means "reunion" in Chinese, developed by Alibaba Group Holding and launched in May 2016, sends push notifications to users near a location where a child has disappeared, including photos and descriptions of the victim.

The Ministry of Public Security said 611 missing children were rescued in 2016, and the app was responsible for "hundreds" of them, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

3. Robbery in Los Angeles

Parolee Jason Topper, 34, was located and arrested for robbery in November 2011, after Los Angeles Police Department officers used the victim's stolen iPhone's "Find My iPhone" app to track him down.

His victim told police he had robbed her at gunpoint and ran off with her purse containing her iPhone.

With the tracking app installed, officers tracked the cellphone to the vicinity of 11th Street and Ardmore Avenue, where they saw a man who matched the suspect's description.

All that was left to do was dial the woman's phone number, and the device was recovered from his pocket.

4. Theft in Manchester

Aerospace engineering student James Bird from Manchester University had his iPhone stolen in November 2011, and used the "Find My iPhone" app to locate its whereabouts.

When he found the man who had the phone, the thief bolted and he chased him onto a bus and confronted him.

With nowhere to run, the man eventually handed the iPhone over after initially denying having it.

There was a police car behind the bus coincidentally, and the thief was arrested.

5. Tragedy in San Mateo, California

Not all cases involving smartphone tracking apps end happily.

In December 2016, Jayesh Patel, 49, died after his Mercedes drove off a highway and fell 9m to a field below.

His wife had filed a missing persons report with the police after he did not go home that night, before using a tracking app to locate him.

She followed the "ping" to that location, where she discovered the wreckage and called the police. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/04/01/man-using-app-locates-missing-girlfriend-who-was-allegedly-raped/#ft32VpoPy1itwDjE.99