Md. Police Find Writer's Phone With Social Media

Aug. 3, 2012
Prince George's County police found the iPhone of a New York Times writer whose Twitter post earlier in the day about the GPS coordinates of his phone went viral and spawned an outpouring of help to track it down.

The case of the missing iPhone has been solved, all in a matter of hours.

Prince George's County police announced Thursday that they had recovered the iPhone of New York Times writer David Pogue, whose Twitter post earlier in the day about the GPS coordinates of his phone went viral and spawned an outpouring of help to track it down.

Officers recovered the phone from a location in Seat Pleasant after the coordinates of the phone were provided to the department, said Maj. George Nader, commander of the police district where the phone was found.

No arrests were made, he said.

A police spokeswoman alerted Mr. Pogue via Twitter his phone had been recovered Thursday afternoon, posting a picture of two grinning police officers holding it. She said the phone would be shipped to Mr. Pogue on Thursday night.

According to a blog post from Mr. Pogue, police searched the area where the phone was for more than an hour, finally finding it in a backyard.

Mr. Pogue first posted about the missing phone Thursday morning, writing simply "My iPhone was stolen. Find My iPhone shows it in MD. Anyone want to help me track it down? ADVENTURE!" The website Gizmodo then picked up on phone tracking, posting Google Maps shots of the neighborhood where it was located.

Though the missing phone got more attention than a typical case, police said they'd take the same steps to locate a missing phone regardless of the owner.

"If somebody knows where their phone is, we will try to go in and get it," Maj. Nader said, adding the department encourages owners to have GPS tracking applications and locking mechanisms on their phones for this kind of occasion.

Copyright 2012 The Washington Times LLCAll Rights Reserved

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