Today, I feel incredibly grateful for recovering my stolen iPhone within 36 hours, thanks to technology and the help of wonderful people whom I can't thank enough.
As a tech enthusiast, I had recently purchased the latest iPhone 16 and was excited about its AI features. But being passionate about technology doesn't diminish how hard I worked to afford it. It felt deeply unfair when someone stole my phone right from my pocket—and the police couldn't help.
The steal
I was returning from a handpan concert in Geneva at 1:00 AM, riding the Lausanne metro from Flon to Riponne, when my wireless battery pack suddenly fell from my pocket. This was bizarre—my jacket pockets are deep, and I hadn't lost anything from them in the decade I've owned this jacket. But then came the worse realization: where was my phone? A woman picked up the battery and insisted she'd only seen the battery fall, nothing else. Everyone else around remained suspiciously quiet.
My phone had been magnetically attached to the wireless powerbank in my pocket—how could this have happened?
I quickly borrowed my friend's phone and checked iCloud. My phone showed up at Lausanne Flon, moving toward Montbenon, before being turned off. It meant that when the battery fall, the phone was already stolen. Mysteriously, it later appeared at Lémania school for the night... but why?
Detectable mode even turned off
Released in September 2021, iOS 15 introduced a feature that allows users to find their iPhone even when it's turned off. When powering down an iPhone, users see an alert with a GPS icon indicating that the device remains detectable while powered off.
The technology works similarly to AirTags - when turned off, the iPhone enters an extreme power-saving mode. It can detect nearby Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad) and use their network to send an approximate GPS location. This means users can track their phone's location even when it's powered down.
You are going to see that this feature played a crucial role in the story.
I called the police, who told me I needed to file charges during facility hours. That was it! It was already 4 AM, and they were only open from 8 AM to 11 AM, so I gave up.
Few hours later, in the early morning
While I slept, a lot happened. My phone started moving toward Lausanne Gare.
Until... wait for it...
A city in France 🇫🇷 ! Annemasse.
To illustrate how bad the situation was, here's the map:
I live in Oron-la-Ville (maison), the theft occurred in Lausanne, and now my phone was in another country, an hour and twenty minutes away by car 🙀
Then a specific address appeared.
Dear lord... The thief was trying to unlock my iCloud-protected phone, and the shop was complicit since they ignored the message I'd set in lost mode to call me back 🙀
I called the shop around 6 PM—no answer. The Swiss police couldn't help and transferred me to French police in Evian, who gave me Annemasse police's number. I thought knowing the phone's location would solve everything, right? Wrong. The police asked if I'd filed charges, which I hadn't. They explained that even with charges filed, Swiss authorities would need to transfer the case to French authorities, and even then, they couldn't act because the location wasn't precise enough and they could only enter public places.
I asked, "Are you telling me I could go to the shop and steal back my own phone without consequences?" The officer replied, "Basically, yes."
👏
Feeling defeated, I considered giving up and going to bed.
The next morning, I woke to updates 😮 The phone had moved to a new address—and it was turned on!
After 10 minutes, I noticed it wasn't moving. I checked the location on Google Street View:
It was clearly a public place! Since the police couldn't help, I had an idea. What if I gathered more evidence? I called the restaurant and reached the manager. I explained that my stolen phone was in his restaurant and offered to make it ring so he could identify the thief and take a photo of them.
It felt surreal hearing my iPhone ring through the manager's phone from 60+ kilometers away, when I'd thought it was lost forever. Then something unexpected happened. The manager confronted the person, saying, "This is a stolen phone. Hand it over." The carrier claimed, "Oh, I just found it," but the manager insisted, "Give it to me now, or I'm calling the police!" Moments later, the manager told me, "All good, I have your phone. You can retrieve it however you'd like" 😮
I can't thank this person enough (who even refused compensation, saying: "I didn't do this for a reward, but thank you for thinking about it").
O-M-G
Now I just needed to find a way to get to Annemasse to retrieve my property 📱
But wait... I remembered a friend was likely currently traveling from Lyon to Lausanne!
My secured phone began its journey back to me.
And I feel incredibly grateful that I recovered my stolen phone so quickly, without a scratch, and with the same battery level I'd left it with 😂
What about you, do you have any reason to feel grateful? I'm sure if you think deeply about it, you'll find at least one!
Cheers 🍻
