Tracing a stolen phone (China)

stannis

Yes, I know there must have been many threads about this subject before, but this one is slightly different in that it's happened in China, where I live.

A few days ago my girlfriend and I had arranged to meet in the city centre. As I waited at a bus stop for her, she walked into a market area and her smartphone (a Samsung) was nabbed in a few seconds. The market sellers told us that this is very common - at least 20 phones are stolen in that area every day. The day after this, we went to a police station and she reported the details of the theft, including the phone's unique number (I don't mean the phone number, I mean the number that each individual unit is given - I think it's call IMEI?)

The phone could be anywhere in the city now. It was probably taken to another market, or a dodgy second-hand shop, and sold on. Does anyone know if there is some way - or ways - to trace and find a stolen Samsung phone? Has anyone had a similar experience, in Ireland or elsewhere? And realistically speaking, what are the chances of my girlfriend ever getting her phone back?

MBSnr

If her phone was up to date then you should (not sure about china store though) have got an update in August pushing out the Google Device manager.

https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

Sign in there and you may be able to track it. You can't remotely wipe it (at least on mine) as I had to manually select enable factory wipe in the Google settings on the phone (version GingerBread). It may differ on newer Android versions.

But the likelihood is it has been factory reset and wiped already....and I' not sure how that affects the tracking but probably removes the ability.

newmug

What did the Chinese police say? If you do find it, and find the thief, what is likely to happen to him?

stannis

MBSnr wrote: »

If her phone was up to date then you should (not sure about china store though) have got an update in August pushing out the Google Device manager.

https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

Sign in there and you may be able to track it. You can't remotely wipe it (at least on mine) as I had to manually select enable factory wipe in the Google settings on the phone (version GingerBread). It may differ on newer Android versions.

But the likelihood is it has been factory reset and wiped already....and I' not sure how that affects the tracking but probably removes the ability.

Thanks for the tip. Not sure it will help though. My gf doesn't have a Gmail account (most Chinese haven't even heard of Gmail - the gov't here is not friendly to Google). As for me, I also bought a Samsung here in China but am not able to use Google Play - my phone is not listed as a registered device. If I can't use my device on Play or other Google services, it's unlikely she could either.

What did the Chinese police say? If you do find it, and find the thief, what is likely to happen to him?

The cops were their usual useless selves. She filled in some forms and they looked at some CCTV footage, except it was the wrong footage, so they sent her to the building with the correct footage, except there was nobody there for some reason. In the unlikely event that the thief could be identified, the cops would probably either (a) do nothing or (b) beat him up (my gf said she has been told the cops often beat suspects - it was a cop who told her!). Neither option would help much as the phone is probably far away now.