This man knows who stole my phone, can anyone help

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Nexus said:
Can you elaborate on this a bit more as it seems a bit dubious...

You are saying you snapped this picture using the remote app you are using to monitor?

It's clearly not the person who stole the phone, so what was he doing? Holding it up to show this guy or take a picture of him himself and you just took the photo during monitoring?

Although somebody might know this guy, you want to be very careful how you tread with an internet campaign to find your phone, especially if you go posting on 4Chan. You may well be looking at a guy here who is totally innocent and could end up defaming him.
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It did cross my mind that he could be innocent, hence the 'this man knows who stole my phone'. The 4chan was semi joking and more in relation to the phone number of the sim card that was inserted into the phone very shortly after it was stolen so I can be fairly sure that does belong to the thief! I was a bit frustrated at the time so the thought of loads of internet random people pestering was a little amusing!

If I don't see it online again for a few days I'll probably just call him at some point and tell him I'd like my phone back!
 
Dimple said:
I've missed something here.
Why can't you remotely turn on the GPS like I can with Samsung Dive?
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Where were you last night!?! :)

I wasn't aware of Dive till someone posted on here regards Samsung built in tracking. I've just logged into Dive and my phone is there (although not connected/switched on so can't do anything at the moment)... So if I try tracking with the Dive program it'll activate GPS etc even though it's not my sim card in the phone anymore? When it was mentioned I just assumed it would run into the same problem as Cerberus is having! Curses!

Gives me a bit more hope if he logs in again!
 
I might goto the location and try and get as much info as possible, ideally try and narrow it down to an exact address. Then call the police and let them deal with it! I'll bring a camera along if it happens! *cue stolen camera thread....

I'm thinking with a photo of one of the likely suspects and the number of the sim card currently in my phone and the ability to trigger it to make a noise even if on silent there might be enough evidence for them to enter and search for stolen property.... Not exactly sure how it works or how much evidence the police would need to go in.
 
You're supposed to be able to take a picture with the front facing camera but all I got was black when I tried.

I'd hope GPS coordinates leading to an address would be enough evidence! I don't see how they could justify not even turning up. It's not just a phone after all these people probably do the same to a few houses a week!
 
Banzai_Joe said:
I can't see anywhere in cerberus that allows you to change your passwords on mail accounts on the phone. If he did that then that would surely alert the tealeaf.
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I changed the password on the mail account itself so the one on the phone would be wrong. This of course would tip them off that I had noticed the theft but not that I necessarily still had some ability to access the phone.
 
benjo said:
Why?

I've tried to skim read the thread but there's a lot of misinformation about rooting and what Cerberus can and can't do :o
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It was my attempt at humor. There have been a few people in this thread have mentioned they've purchased this software because of it.

What would you say in this thread is misinformed?
 
benjo said:
Sorry, Like I said I just skim read it so I missed any sarcasm :p

Most of it has been covered anyway, such as the gps battery usage, android restrictions and rooting.

This thread is just another reason to root! ;)
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No worries! I definitely agree with the need to root! I didn't mean to suggest that gps on a phone operating normally would run down excessively quickly, just that mine was having a problem and for some it kept trying to find it's location. This caused loads of wakelocks and my phone never entered deep sleep. GPS off was a lazy fix whilst I looked for a better solution.
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Good luck recovering your phone, personally I wouldn't waste my time, chances of recovery are slim to none!
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I agree I'll be quite surprised if I get it back! But the tiny chance they maybe do get caught for breaking in is worth it for me. I'd hope that the photos of the suspects being collected so soon after the theft would work in my favor, maybe!
 
GeX said:
EDIT: OP - Not trolling, but how did they manage to take your phone? Mine isn't ever very far away - and isn't left in the house if I'm out.
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We arrived home with a takeaway, entered through the back door into the kitchen and dumped bags (and phone!) onto the table and took the food through to the lounge to eat. After eating took the plates back into the kitchen to find the door open and then noticed a bag and my phone missing. Stupid mistake, we should have locked the door but our minds were focused on the food and just forgot. Won't do that again!
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
lol, nearly as much probability it was me as the poor sod in the OP's original post tbh!!
(you really should remove that photo!)
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The photo was taken just 3 hours after the phone had been taken and about 5 minutes after it was first switched on after the theft. I think my description of him likely knowing the people who stole my phone is reasonable!
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Not really, when I was younger I use to go around mates house loads and people I have never met or know would turn up! Whats to say this poor fella wasn't around someones house and simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That's why the phrase 'BEYOND reasonable doubt' is extremely important in the eyes of the law!!
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I admit he could well have nothing to do with the theft but I strongly suspect he knows something so if he could be traced it would be very helpful to me!

Surely 'beyond reasonable doubt' is when you're finding someone guilty and giving them a punishment. If you were just looking for the police to be able to search a property or person you'd just need to give them reasonable grounds to suspect said person may have come into contact with stolen property.
 
Porceliamone said:
I had around £1,300 of camera equipment stolen from me when I was in the room right next door to it too. Thieves don't care what it takes to make a quick quid or two - despite the potentially devastating consequences for the victim. In my case insurance not covering the loss and being unable to replace said stolen equipment. Still, the guy who did me over is banged up now so there's some comfort in that. Doesn't replace my camera and lens though. Heartless Barclay's bankers.
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Sorry to hear about that. It's so frustrating!

At the end of the day I'm just glad that nothing worse happened. They were in the next room to us and far more could have happened then them grabbing my phone and a bag.
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
They need 'probable cause' for search warrants what that actually entails I don't know as I'm not a detective/judge :p
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Are you American by any chance? Because that might explain a misunderstanding.

Probable cause is an American legal term that can be defined as the logical belief, supported by facts and circumstances, that a particular person has committed a crime.

To search someone in the UK you need 'reasonable suspicion' which is the reasonable presumption that a crime has or will occur. Reasonable suspicion is reached through rational conclusions based on facts or circumstances. This is also referred to as more than a guess but less than probable cause.

I'd argue that from the timing of the photograph it would be a rational conclusion to suspect that the person photographed new something of the crime and would be enough to give cause to search. Obviously if they didn't find anything the photo wouldn't be enough on its own to arrest so he'd be on his way.
 
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Lucero said:
When you say you disabled GPS do you mean 3G / H? My Cerberus app tracks the phone using the 3G network
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No the data connection was left alone, I turned off the setting that allowed the phones software to access the GPS hardware and the location information from the cell towers. I know it's turned out to be a daft thing to do but I was getting really frustrated by the phone constantly running out of power even when I wasn't using it.
 
asim18 said:
I've been wondering why the pic looks like it has been "photographed". As in it's perfectly framed and he's looking at the camera, there's no camera shake indicating the phone was still and framed at him for up to several seconds. You don't just randomly hold a phone pointing at someone. Also, if the person was indeed using the camera app at the time and taking photos of his mate, then how has the tracking app accessed the camera hardware at the same time as the camera app?

How does this app work, does it have a live viewfinder? or do you just randomly zap photos? couldn't you take any other photos of the surroundings?
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Just got lucky I think! I didn't want to take too many pictures because I was under the impression that it activated the shutter sound when you did so. I've since found out that Cerberus fixed this issue in a December update.

I've emptied my dropbox account and reset it back to the old password so if they've been taking photos themselves they should sync up if it's connected again!
 
asim18 said:
Doesn't Google have a database of all WiFi access points and their relative GPS location? It's one of the things they recorded when they did StreetView if I'm not mistaken, to aid faster GPS as WiFi access points typically have a fixed geographical location.

I know because if I turn on GPS with WiFi off it takes 10-30 seconds to get a fix, and it gives you a message saying you can get faster fix if you turn on WiFi. If you try to get a fix with WiFi on it get's a fix within a second if your in range of a WiFi access point.
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I think they did but got into a lot of trouble for collecting the data and were made to delete it. Although they also collected peoples data that was being sent on unencrypted networks which was the larger sticking point I believe.
 
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