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Police rescue kidnapped teenage girl after mother locates her using Find My iPhone

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An 18-year-old girl reportedly kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend has been safely rescued by police after her mother tracked her location using Find My iPhoneCNBC reports that the victim was found more than 150 miles away from home.

Pennsylvania State Police were “notified by the victim’s mother that her daughter had been taken against her will by her ex-boyfriend” on Tuesday, according to a statement. “The victim’s mother related that she had been receiving text messages from her daughter requesting help. The mother was able to track the victim’s cellphone by utilizing the iCloud [and] Find My iPhone app.”

Police say that the victim was found bound and gagged in a car in a McDonald’s parking lot. They named the kidnapping suspect as 18-year-old Joseph Boller, whose bail has been set at $150,000.

There have been a number of examples over the years of Find My iPhone helping to rescue people and to locate suspects.

Find My iPhone requires a mobile data connection to work. Given that it’s not uncommon for parents to hand down older iOS devices to kids without a working SIM, a smart move could be to add a cheap SIM to the device from a company like FreedomPop.

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Comments

  1. Doug Aalseth - 8 years ago

    What?!? Police were able to do their job without access to encrypted data? They did not have to rummage through all of the encrypted secure messages on every phone in the western world in order to bring this case to a good outcome? It’s…it’s…almost like they remembered how to do actual police work.

  2. John Smith - 8 years ago

    How did the mother access ‘find my iPhone’ for the daughter’s phone – obviously you need the iTunes/iCloud password for that ?

    Did the mother know the password for the account ? The article CNBC says the mother was doing it, so presumably she had the password. Perhaps the daughter texted the password to her.

    If she had not known the account password, would Apple have assisted or obstructed the police ?

    Neither in this case nor the links in the article to other cases, is there any evidence of Apple assisting the law or rescue services.

    The story raises how powerful mobile technology can be to assist law enforcement – perhaps even a life saved – shame Apple has a policy of obstructing that.

    • Rio (@Crzy_rio) - 8 years ago

      Oh god please dont start this.

      You really want Apple go give out passwords that easily?

      I think my Son is kidnapped, he hasnt called me back in 2 hours, give me his password so I can track his moves to make sure hes ok.
      My wife has been kidnapped, I need her password so I can track where she is.

      Maybe if you are ok with Apple giving out passwords so easily, YOU should take the responsibility and give your iCloud password to all your loved ones so in case of emergency they can access it to track you. The responsibility should be on the user and not on the company.

      • John Smith - 8 years ago

        With any other company – e.g. if cops ask the cellphone service provider – they will assist the police by giving the location – not passwords.

        I don’t see any examples where Apple has assisted by providing find my iPhone locations.

        It’s a simple enough question.

        Would Apple assist the police or obstruct them ?

    • Kadang (@Kadang) - 8 years ago

      What !

      As a family member or friend you can OPT IN or invite a person to follow you on Find My iPhone. It’s freakin’ optional

      – Unless you’re a parent who actually pays for your kids iOS device, and enforces their device for stalking or security issues :-)

    • degraevesofie - 8 years ago

      How did the mother access ‘find my iPhone’ for the daughter’s phone – obviously you need the iTunes/iCloud password for that ?

      No, that’s not right. Family Sharing is sufficient.

      We use it all the time. Kids have a surprising propensity to misplace their phone. Also, the “Play Sound” option overrides the mute setting, which I sometimes take advantage of to make sure the kids notice my incoming messages.

      The story raises how powerful mobile technology can be to assist law enforcement – perhaps even a life saved – shame Apple has a policy of obstructing that.

      Apple is not obstructing: It’s ensuring the safety of people who rely on their communication devices being secure. Also, the FBI’s proposed mechanism to crack an on-device password would not work to crack an iCloud password.

    • iRichard (@iRichard) - 8 years ago

      Do you even have an iPhone? It’s a great device, you should really try to get your hands on one while you can. Allowing to send location from Find Friends is rather easy and doesn’t require any passwords… Find iPhone does, but then again the mother might have had Family sharing on (http://www.imore.com/how-use-family-sharing-find-my-iphone) which again doesn’t require any password sharing

      It’s not up to Apple to protect people against their own stupidity, they provide the tools along with manuals & tips. If an user in his/hers ignorance chooses not to use this functionality, how is Apple to blame?

      Your posts reek of BS and FUD

    • 89p13 - 8 years ago

      People – Please Don’t Feed The TROLL!

      • John Smith - 8 years ago

        People – Please don’t comply with the lackwit.

    • alexandereiden - 8 years ago

      There is also such thing as a family plan… where all the iCloud accounts of a family are under the same account…

      • John Smith - 8 years ago

        Sure.

        But if the family member is not on that – will Apple assist the police with the location or will they obstruct the police and let the kidnapper carry on ?

        Other companies would assist the police with the location – would Apple ?

      • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

        Check out that smooth talk down there… now Apple is the entity responsible for the kidnapper. Sounds like Reid method speak to me, you a cop “John Smith”?

    • lin2logger - 8 years ago

      Thanks for outing yourself as A COMPLETE BLAZING MORON. Never mind that giving out A PASSWORD (had that even been the case) doesn’t compare even REMOTELY to HACKING AN ENTIRE PHONE by ANY stretch of the imagination.

      Troll much, you clueless ignoramus?

    • cerberusthewise - 8 years ago

      If they shared the same apple id account then of course she could track down the device on the account. If she had a different account, then family sharing let’s family members share their location with each other.

    • Jon G. - 8 years ago

      Apple not setting a dangerous precedent for law enforcement (i.e. NSA) to abuse backdoor encryption keys is not obstruction of justice – it’s protection of our right to unlawful search and seizure. Just because you’re comfortable with the government eavesdropping on your phone calls and reading your emails and tracking your every digital move doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t want to protect one of our essential freedoms.

  3. This is the kind of thing that would have to go away if Apple breaks the encryption for the FBI. If they create a firmware that allows the FBI to brute force their way through and iPhone’s passcode lock, removing the encryption, FindMyiPhone essentially becomes useless.

  4. “Once again the day is saved, thanks to an Apple iPhone!”

  5. srgmac - 8 years ago

    “They named the kidnapping suspect as 18-year-old Joseph Boller, whose bail has been set at $150,000.”
    150,000 dollars bail? Are you kidding me?
    There are people who never harmed a soul who got caught with plant clippings or powders and they get NO bail — this degenerate kidnaps a teenage girl and would have done god knows what to her gets a bail that low?
    America INJustice system

    • ericisking - 8 years ago

      $150,000 probably doesn’t seem low to the half-cousin he shares his trailer with.

      To be fair, he also seems like a fairly incompetent kidnapper, if he left her alone with a cellphone.

  6. Robert Wilson - 8 years ago

    Find friends is good for stuff like this too and no need to know their password. In fact a few years ago I was at a school reunion at the Virginia school for the blind. Well they had done a lot of ne construction on campus. Not this place is huge. Well one of my old classmates and a few others who were all totally blind were comming back frome one of the other buildings and got turned around and went the wrong way. He called me saying they were lost and had no idea where they were. Lucally we both had iPhones I told him stay put an download find friends and accept the request I’m about to send.

    Well long story short I used it with the satellite map to guide me to right were they were ant and get them back safely.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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