Apple includes the "Find My" app on all of its devices to allow users to find their devices and also help locate friends and family members. However, the feature turned out to be pretty useful to law enforcement in Melbourne, Australia after it helped them track down two wanted men during a car chase last month.
Police track iPad to nab suspects
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, law enforcement was tracking the two suspects fleeing in a stolen vehicle by air in a helicopter after an iPad was stolen earlier from a home.
Vaatoa Chang, 29, was behind the wheel and passenger Jonas Montealegre, 36, was seated next to him as they attempted to evade police by switching cars. What they didn't realise, however, is that the iPad they had just stolen had its location services turned on and officers were tracking them using the iPad's location.
At first, the owner of the iPad used the Find My app to pinpoint the location of his iPad and follow his stolen Mitsubishi Tritan but then police eventually took over and continued tracking the tablet's location themselves using the same method.
Police tracked the fugitives for two hours across Melbournes's suburbs using the app but the chase culminated with a grim ending for the thieves. Both suspects were killed in a 100km/h collision with a freight truck after jumping a red signal.
'Find My' app – a cop's best friend
This isn't the first time the Find My app has helped police catch criminals. In 2018, a man who went on a hit-and-run spree in a stolen vehicle in Wisconsin was arrested after cops used the victim's "Find My iPhone" app to track the location of her smartphone that she had forgotten in the vehicle.
In a separate incident that took place last year, A woman in Iowa credited Apple's "Find My" app with helping her track down her car after it was stolen. O'Connor, along with law enforcement, traced the location of her iPhone using a friend's phone to a local apartment complex, where they recovered her stolen vehicle.
The location-tracking app also led cops to arrest an armed carjacker who turned out to be a convicted felon after he stole a Honda sedan with the victim's phone inside.
