ST. LOUIS – A Lemay man tracked his stolen iPhone to a machine that offers instant cash for smartphones. But before police could retrieve it, he says it popped up on his tracker as being overseas.
Jeremy Walker said, “It’s been two months now and it’s all the way in China now.”
Walker was robbed of his iPhone on the Metrolink in November and has been tracking it ever since. His Find My iPhone app showed the device’s location was pinging in Shenzhen, China.
Walker’s smartphone was tracked to many distinct locations. It was near the downtown homeless encampment for one day. It was inside the Maplewood Wal-Mart for 2 hours. It was in Earth City for a few days & in Louisville, KY a few weeks before ending up in China.
Walker said, “With the location having come on six different times they would have had to have plugged it in, and you know, looked through the phone.”
The location inside Wal-Mart was for Eco ATM – a machine that advertises “Get Paid” – “Safely and Securely Sell Your Phone.”
Eco ATM monitors a stolen phone database and they said, “If a phone is presented to the kiosk that is determined to have been reported as lost or stolen… the kiosk will reject the device.”
Walker reported his phone stolen and police say they’ve had other cases of stolen devices.
Maplewood Police Corporal Dustin Hoskins explained he’s had two cases just in the last 12 months where he’s been able to retrieve a victim’s stolen iPhone. Eco ATM has a special 800 number for police and that the company can remotely unlock the machine for them.
Eco ATM also requires identification and takes a picture of the customer, which also helps police.
But in Walker’s case, his phone had moved from the kiosk within hours.
He was hopeful at first but later said, “As soon as I realized it was sold to Eco ATM, I thought it’s all going to be over. I’ll get my phone back, and two months later I’m still struggling and without a phone.”