Anyone planning on nicking an iPad should think twice after technology turned against a thief, allowing the owner of the stolen item to track it down in a high-speed car chase that resembled “a scene from a Mission: Impossible movie”.
As we drove past the Detox centre, I recognised the blue, suede interior of its cover
The businessman, whose treasured Apple tablet was stolen from his open car on a busy Sliema seafront at 11 a.m., after he parked right outside a shop and popped in, took on the role of private investigator, resorting to the Find My iPhone app he had come across.
“My first thought was not so much the loss of the iPad but the critical data it held,” he said, adding that “technology helped justice prevail”.
In the panic, the man, who did not wish to be named, did not immediately think of the free app but went for the more traditional means of tracing a thief by asking for CCTV footage at the shop.
In the absence of that, he tried to remember the name of the app, failing which he called his office and instantly downloaded it onto his mobile phone.
Within seconds, he could follow the movements of his stolen gadget and proceeded to navigate through the streets of Sliema under its flashing guidance, while his employee stepped on the gas in an exhilarating chase.
They even solved the problem of whether the thief was driving or walking when they noticed the iPad was moving in the wrong direction down a one-way street, and another two employees soon joined forces for a more organised chase.
However, it was not without hiccups, including slight delays as the phone locates the missing item and sends the signal.
Moreover, an iPad cannot be tracked down once it is switched off, which is what happened when it reached a mobile phone shop in the backstreets of Gżira.
“We did not know this at the time and thought my iPad had to be in the vicinity since I stopped receiving a signal.”
Having hit a brick wall, the men went to the police station and had to convince a baffled inspector, to whom the technology was a novelty, how they knew where the stolen tablet was.
Back on the scene, the shop was shut and hope of locating it started to dwindle… until the iPhone started flashing again, 45 minutes later, and everyone converged on the “oracle”.
The owner jumped into a slow-moving police car and, racing against time due to a dying iPhone battery, guided them through the streets to Msida.
But as luck would have it, the battery ran out just when they were closing in on the thieves near St Luke’s Hospital.
“I was ready to throw in the towel at that point,” the businessman said. “But the police wanted to continue. As we drove past the Detox centre, I recognised the blue, suede interior of its cover. A man by a car was showing it to another, possibly about to trade it.”
Handbrake turns and commotion ensued and the suspected men’s vehicles were blocked by the police car and that driven by the businessman’s employees.
“The guy with my iPad said he had just bought it from Ħamrun and named the seller. He must have switched it on again to show it worked, little knowing it would give hiswhereabouts away.”
He was arrested, and just two days later, the original thief, Renald Rotin, 31, from Żabbar, was arraigned in court and jailed for nine months after admitting to stealing it to sustain a heroin habit.
At the time, the men had barely thought of what they would do if they apprehended the thief. “We just went for it!”
It must have been the “quickest crime ever solved” – no more than four hours. In that time the iPad had changed hands twice. The €800 gadget was supposedly bought for €100 and was about to be sold for a mere €50 profit.
“There was an element of luck but to catch a thief in that time is quite phenomenal,” the owner said.
“Technology is good if it is used well, but it can also be dangerous when privacy is breached. I can envisage us using this sort of thing to keep tabs on our kids too.”