Thief Temporarily Makes Off With iPhone During GPS Tracking Demo - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Thief Temporarily Makes Off With iPhone During GPS Tracking Demo

by

124852 covia alert respond

The San Francisco Chronicle relates the story of a thief who earlier this week briefly made off with an iPhone snatched right from a woman's hand in the city's South of Market neighborhood, not knowing that the phone was being used in a demonstration of real-time GPS tracking. The thief was apprehended about ten minutes later with the help of the location tracking.

Kahn said he had asked an assistant, Jordan Sturm, to take his phone out on the sidewalk so he could track her location on his laptop. Seconds after she left, though, a curious thing happened. She appeared -- according to Alert & Respond -- to be running at high speed down the street.

But Sturm no longer had the phone. After she hurried back into the office, she called police and the company relayed the phone's ever-changing location to officers.

Alert & Respond is a product from Covia Labs designed for first responders such as law enforcement agencies to enable real-time location tracking and to permit officers to share various communication methods across mobile device platforms and agencies.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

General Apps Reddit Feature

Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

Monday May 11, 2026 6:10 am PDT by
Social network Reddit recently began blocking mobile visitors to its website while pushing them to download the official Reddit app, and it's fair to say that the move is not going down well with users. If you visit reddit.com on your iPhone today, you may see a new popup that can't be dismissed, asking you to "get the app to keep using Reddit." A Reddit spokesperson told Ars Technica...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 With End-to-End Encrypted RCS, New Wallpaper, and Maps Updates

Monday May 11, 2026 10:06 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5, the newest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems. The software comes nearly two months after Apple released iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS 15.8.8, iOS 16.7.16, iOS 18.7.9, and...