A glitch in Apple's Find My Phone sending people to this one guy's home in Texas

[thewayne]

Very strange, and slightly terrifying.

For some reason, Apple's Find My Phone service really likes this one guy's address in Texas. People show up at all hours of the day, demanding their devices back. Except he doesn't have them. There's something glitching in the Find My system that has fixated on his address.

Local law enforcement know about what's going on and all officers know that this address can have problems.

There's two serious parts to this problem. First, Find My gives an approximate location of where a device may be. It's not exact. Still, the system is clearly fixated on this guy's location. Second, and this is the most important part, NEVER go to someone's house to try to recover a stolen or lost device! This is the plea of law enforcement everywhere! Just last week there was a shoot-out in Texas over a stolen truck! The owner had a tracker on the truck and found the truck, and the thief, an altercation ensued (big surprise) and the thief was shot dead.

Let the police recover your stolen or lost devices, or just remote-wipe them and replace them. It's not worth the personal risk.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/find-my-iphone-app-glitch-sends-strangers-to-mans-home/

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/23/04/08/2020206/texas-dad-says-find-my-iphone-glitch-is-directing-angry-strangers-to-his-home

Comments

[kaishin108]

That guy should sue Apple, my goodness what a nuisance.

Good advice on letting the police recover stolen items. People just don't think it through.

[kathmandu]

I think I read about that years ago. It's still not fixed yet?!

[disneydream06]

Let the police recover your stolen or lost devices, or just remote-wipe them and replace them. It's not worth the personal risk.
Unless of course you live in Texas or Florida and then you are expected to use your guns to solve the simplest of problems. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sure hope Apple compensates that guy. WOW...
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

That's terrifying, to find that you have unintentionally become the target of stochastic terror because a large company can't fix a glitch in their systems and is wrongfully saying lost or stolen devices are in your possession.