iPhone Thief Outsmarted at Coachella Music Festival The tech-savvy music lovers fired up the Find My iPhone app and chased the alleged thief around the Indio, Calif., venue until security workers could nab him.
Our biggest sale — Get unlimited access to Entrepreneur.com at an unbeatable price. Use code SAVE50 at checkout.*
Claim Offer*Offer only available to new subscribers
This story originally appeared on PCMag
Music festivals are all about good times, but there's one thing that can instantly kill your vibe: having your smartphone stolen.
A bunch of Coachella-goers found themselves in this less-than-ideal scenario over the weekend, but instead of pouting about not being able to Snapchat or text their friends, they got smart. According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the tech-savvy music lovers fired up the Find My iPhone app and chased the alleged thief -- Reinaldo De Jesus Henao, 36, of New York -- around the Indio, Calif., venue until security workers could nab him.
"Enough people pinpointed it to this person, they notified security, they looked around, they saw a person with a backpack, they detained him and then they called us," Indio Police Department public information officer Sergeant Dan Marshall told LAist. "When we got there, we discovered these hundred-plus cellphones in his backpack."
Henao was arrested on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property. Around 20 of the stolen phones were returned to their rightful owners; the rest were left at lost and found.
The incident is a good reminder of how helpful Find My iPhone can be; if you use an Apple smartphone, it would be wise to take a second and make sure it's set up on your device.
Over the years, Find My iPhone has gotten lots of people out of bad situations. In 2014, a California woman who drove her car into a 500-foot ravine was rescued after her family and one clever police officer were able to determine her location via Find My iPhone.
