Posted on 01/27/2016 11:32:57 AM PST by Swordmaker
For months now, angry strangers have been showing up at Christina Lee and Michael Saba's front door with a curious demand: "Give me back my stolen phone!"
Sometimes, families will show up; other times, it's groups of friends or a random person with a police officer in tow, according to Fusion. Despite using different service providers, everyone who bangs on their door has been led to the suburban Atlanta home by a phone-tracking app.
The problem -- as the couple desperately tries to explain visitors -- is that the missing phones aren't at the house and never have been.
They are not, in fact, thieves. Saba is an engineer; Lee is a journalist.
The pair doesn't understand why exactly, but both Android and iPhone users on various networks are being directed to their house by phone-tracking apps.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What lawsuits are made of...
Sounds like this has the makings of a good episode for Supernatural!
Some high school kid had a bit of fun.
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Saba-that’s the name of the tiny island at the edge of the Caribbean that I keep trying to talk my husband into moving to. But I shouldn’t really be publicising its existance. Couldn’t move yet anyway, don’t think they’d let me bring my 5 dogs :)
Get a gun. Don’t answer the door if you don’t know who it is.
Being an engineer or a journalist does not mean that one is not a thief!
I would sue. Clearcut case.
Dave’s not home, man.
My kid got his phone back by using the location app on his iphone.
“ohh. We just found it. We were going to turn it in.”
Yeah right.
I have to hand it to these homeowners, as my patience would have been exhausted the first time someone showed up at my door and my lawyer would be on the phone the next day. To live with repeated visits and somehow be patient enough to put up with police searches?
Nope. It’s bigger than that. Sounds like a triangulation error or last-known wifi connection made. This couple was held outside of their home until the police could decide whether or not to get a search warrant for a missing girl whose phone was “located” at their house.
If only it were that simple to solve. Apparently it isn't. None of the tech people can quite figure out why the default location in this area defaults to this particular house. Strange.
Sounds like this has the makings of a good episode for Supernatural!
I was thinking it could be the start of a good Science Fiction movie. . .
There are no phones here. Who told you to come here?
“Your house is a crime scene and you two are persons of interest,â€
Officer, am I under arrest?
No?
Thank you, I’ll see you later.
Ping to technology weirdness.
One possibility: Their address accidentally matches a “place holder” address that was used in some piece of common code during testing and got left in somewhere...
Some jailbreak software for stolen phones is probably attaching their home IP address or GPS location to the phones when someone clicks on “find my iPhone”.
It’s the Bermuda Triangulation subroutine.
The tracking apps been hacked with a static GPS coordinate.... obviously this house
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