Question about mobileme and stolen iPhone interactions?

[iGal]

My husband and I got mugged on Thursday night.

As soon as we got home, we initiated remote wipes through mobileme and suspended our AT&T accounts. His has said "remote wipe pending" since then, but I got an email stating that the remote wipe had started at 3:50pm on Friday. We were out of town (no phones! no internet! the terror!) between Friday afternoon and Sunday at 3, so I didn't check on it during that time.

At 3:30 today I looked at mobileme again, and my phone now showed up as "PuffyPhone" (ew) and the "location services disabled" text. At this point I was confused, thinking if the remote wipe went through it would be unusable (I'm sure someone will correct me if not), so I initiated another remote wipe. It showed a popup saying that the remote wipe had started, and that the device would no longer show up in mobileme. 30 minutes later, it was back in the side bar, still labeled "PuffyPhone." Another remote wipe initiated at 9:45, so far it's still gone from my mobileme.

Does anyone know whether this is normal or a glitch of some sort? Why would it disappear and then reappear?

Also, being able to see that the phone is renamed, is that because they didn't wipe my data in a restore or would I see it regardless?

 

[iGal]

My phone finally disappeared for good on Sunday night. Still not sure what was going on with it, but hopefully the wipe went through.

 

[Sharunda]

OMG! I'm so sorry this happened to you. I have used Find my iPhone before but never had to use the remote wipe.

Call Apple and ask them how this works so you can have peace of mind.

Also, do you have a police report? Find out from Apple and or AT&T if you can have a flag put on the serial number of this phone because it was stolen so in case it comes into any store they are aware that the phone was stolen. Not that they could do anything to the person who brings it in, but just so there is a record of this and your proof that it was stolen is your police report.

Good luck and I am so sorry this happened to you.

I can imagine how lost you feel without your phone, do you have plans to get another iPhone?

 

[acosmichippo]

Did you try "find my iPhone"?

I'm guessing your phone kept showing up because someone kept restoring it and setting it up for themselves.

 

[PDACPA]

I have not used it, but I thought the remote wipe just reset the phone to factory so that the thief could not get your personal information, emails, contacts, credit card, etc etc.

Sounds like they renamed the phone, but the find my iPhone app was still on the phone.

 

[imutter]

I would think that you want the phone to show to recover it ?
http://www.techspikes.com/2008/10/find-the-serial-number-of-your-stolen-ipod-or-iphone/
I had saved this a while back just in case

 

[iGal]

Thanks for the responses! I didn't check back in on the thread because I hadn't gotten responses after the first post, just wanted to give as much of an resolution I could for anyone reading in the same situation.

Sharunda, the theft happened precisely three minutes before iPhone 4S pre-sales began, so hubby and I got home, shrugged and said "I guess we're getting new iPhones?" ha. Mine arrived on Friday and it finally finished activating Saturday afternoon, so I was only phone-less for 8 days. Thanks

Luckily I still have the box for my stolen 3GS, so the serial number was available for reporting! I guess that's one of very few reasons to keep old boxes around.

It still hasn't shown back up on MobileMe/fmiP, so it looks like the remote wipe finally went through. Hopefully. Not before I saw the list of movies they were using my Netflix app to instant-play. (all about gang violence in Central America... way to be stereotypical to the max, dudes!)

 

[acosmichippo]

so could you not see where they were located with Find My iPhone?

 

[shabnam]

I have bought 4 I ph 4 in canada they were unlocked.a nd packed.
my friends wanted them in USA.
they told me that I have given them 3 new ones and one old one .
I know one of them is using that ph.
i have the ecipnts and the serial no too.
How can I find where are the phs? can we find out by serial no where is the i ph is being used. and in which contract it is? I am s worried about that pl reply as soon as possible. i know my friend has changed the new cell ph with an old one and now he is saying that the new one was missing.pl email me at shabnam zahid @gmail.com Thanks

 

[shabnam]

shabnamzahid@gmail.com

 

[iGal]

acosmichippo: no. Presumably they were smart enough to turn of fmiP at some point, disable location services, whatever... regardless, the only new information was that the phone's name had changed. I believe they were connecting to wifi at that point, must've been because that's the only way the remote wipe would've gone through (which it seems to have).


On a related note, I thought that reporting it stolen through AT&T (a step as you're going through account suspension) would effectively mark the serial number as corresponding to a stolen device in their system, but I could definitely be wrong. I was just assuming.

Shabnam, your post is confusing and I have no idea what you're asking.