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hello,

i am wondering if you could help me? I have had 2 cell phones and 2 laptops stolen including my iph i did not instal the mobil me app on the iphone but put on openstreetmap.org onto my iphone before it was stolen, the other phone that i had tacken was a HTC touch 2. I have the EMIA numbers for both of these devices. Also my Apple mac book and ASUS laptop was stolen 4 which i have the serial numbers. I have contacted my network in New Zealand who have advised me that they cannot "ping the towers" or "triangulate the IMEI's" of these devices unless they have a police court order to do so. The Police are not willing to do this as they only contact the network to do this for search and rescue purposes. WOuld you be albe to help me with any way you know how to do this. on my phone and laptop i have my life on them:( esp videos of my freind who has just been elecricuted for which his family want the videos i took of him and my mates. I have rung apple who give a generic answer to me that they cannot do this and dont have the technoligy to do so. In fact everyonehas a down pat generic answer, that they cannot help but if i call the other one they maybe able to Thier needs to be more education about this as lot of people including me before this happended thought it was easy to track a smart phone. I had a pass word on my iphone. and had it sincked to my mac book, i just hope all my data and videos has not been deleted. The thief broke into my van outside a back backers targeting international people for the Rugby world . I feel so angry but just want my devises baCK at the end of the day. If you think you can help i can email my serials and IMEI's. one or more of these devices must be on in teh towers and chances are if i track one i will have them all, unless they have been sold off allready:( I have reported all the serials to the police but am not holding my breath here i know i need to be proactive so ..ne whay sorry to keep rambling..if you can help or give suggestions that will be great

Cheers

Julian

ps here is the reply from the police i got

"I am writing in relation to your theft complaint, file #.....

I have made contact with ..... in relation to tracking down your cell phone via the GPS device.

I spoke with a technician at.... and was told emphatically that there was no way that they could track a cellphone through its on board GPS device as they did not have the ability to go through satellites. This is not part of their operating capabilities. He suggested that the only person who would be able to do that would be the owner of the phone through an application downloaded for that purpose. As you have already suggested you did not download that application and had not logged on to that software to track your phone.

He also advised that they would be able to give polling information but that would only be useful in that it would show which cell phone site the phone was closest to. This could however be up to 20 kilometres from the cell site and would not be useful in locating the phone. He said they have no ability to triangulate the phones location from it's polling.

I have added the IMEI numbers to the file but at this stage there are no further avenues that Police can use to locate your phone unless more information comes to light.

This matter will now be filed.

Kind regards,"

asked 26 Oct '11, 03:35

jules777's gravatar image

jules777
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accept rate: 0%

edited 26 Oct '11, 10:45

Firefishy's gravatar image

Firefishy ♦♦
1.3k73652

I don't know how to directly help you with your question, but to prevent future cases i just want to introduce you to : http://preyproject.com/

(26 Oct '11, 08:04) alexz

The question has been closed for the following reason "Question is off-topic or not relevant, OpenStreetMap have nothing to do with gps tracking." by Gnonthgol 26 Oct '11, 09:25


Technically the network operator has the ability to locate the phone with more accuracy (multiple towers, different signal strength, movements would usually be along a road...).

If your phone is still on and connected to the internet there is an application called PlanB for Android. You can install it via web market and it sends you the location as soon as it can. Maybe there is something similar for iphone.
To locate the computers you would need to have some service allowing you to control them running (you probably do not).

permanent link

answered 26 Oct '11, 09:33

LM_1's gravatar image

LM_1
3.3k335188
accept rate: 10%

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question asked: 26 Oct '11, 03:35

question was seen: 7,345 times

last updated: 26 Oct '11, 10:45

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum