HOMING PHONE
In 2011: Photographer Peter Meecham had his iPhone stolen at Auckland Airport. His wife was able to track it using the Find My iPhone feature. ‘‘She could see it flying into Queenstown. Then it went to the Heritage Hotel. So we called the police, and they went around there,’’ Meecham said. The guest was skiing when police arrived and shortly after the hotel contacted him to say police wanted to speak to him, the phone was turned off ‘‘and it’s never been turned on since’’. May, 2011: Keith Scott, who runs an Auckland car rental company, left his iPad in a car. He tracked it to Melbourne. When police arrived at the house and asked for the iPad, it was handed over by the family’s 14-year-old daughter. Senior Constable Peter Tickner said police trusted the technology to the extent they would have issued a search warrant had the device not been handed over. November, 2013: The owner of an iPad stolen from a car in Matamata was able to locate the 15-year-old thief, who had also taken the owner’s wallet. The youth was arrested. May last year: A Taranaki woman tracked a stolen iPad to an address. She called police and they found the alleged burglars. Last month: Kate McKay of Rolleston lost her iPhone at a service station. She used a flatmate’s cellphone to track the device to a nearby address. A woman who answered the door had no idea what she was talking about but a man came to the door and handed her the phone. ‘‘He said he knew it would have a GPS on it and that I would be able to find it . . . I got it back, left and laughed,’’ she said.