App Helps Police Track Cell Phone Thieves

App Helps Police Track Cell Phone Thieves

December 31, 2012 | Keri Brown

Cell phones, are small, easy to carry, worth a lot of money and are easy to pawn. That's why thousands of them are stolen each year. But Greensboro Police officers are using a new tool to catch Smartphone thieves: a special app that tracks cell phones and other electronic devices.

"The app uses the phones location services to track it with a GPS tracking signal and as long as you have that app enabled and installed and the GPS sytem in the phone on, you can take any other iPad, iPhone, or McIntosh computer and use that to track that phone or iPad. It's really pretty accurate, about a couple of meters," says Greensboro Police Officer A.G. Lewis.

Th app called “Find My Phone” is used for Apple iphone, ipad and ipod devices, but Lewis says there are similar applications for Androids and Blackberry's.

Authorities say in 2012, 1,041 people reported lost or stolen phones to Greensboro police. Lewis says officers have been successful with using the app.

"The city has managed to recover two phones using this app to my knowledge so far. The phones were taken from a robbery on High Point Road and using this app, we were able to track the phone with the GPS to an address in the city of High Poin. It was from there we were able to recover the phone, as well as other things that were stolen and solve a couple of other cases, as the suspects in that particular robbery had been seen doing a couple of other things as well," says Lewis.

Lewis says cell phones are often stolen from parked vehicles. He says if you have to keep your electronic device in your vehicle, make sure it is in a glove box or hidden under a seat.

Lewis also recommends placing a secure pass code to lock your electronic device when you are not using it. Also, don't keep sensitive information on your phone, including credit card numbers, passwords and other personal information.