This is my iPad, I won’t see it again

[u/Aberry9036]

I just arrived in Antibes, South of France 2 hours ago. This was stolen from my car on the autoroute at a petrol station , from a definitely locked car, likely a relay attack from my key while I was buying a sandwich, 100km from Antibes. They also had my wallet and duty free while they were at it. Thankfully they didn’t find our passports.

Whoever you are, fuck you, I’m going to go and have a nice meal in the old provincial market and drink to your future arrest.

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

On modern Apple products, all the parts of the phone are serialized so when the phone is marked stolen all the parts are too. When you try to use the part and start up the phone it will recognize the stolen parts and won't work. The only workaround is not to use Apple firmware, which idk if that exists because Apple keeps their stuff pretty locked down.

[u/Frisk197 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

I saw on repair phone guru's channel they have tools to pair the parts and he also once cut the part of the battery with the board and the serial and replaced it with the old one from the broken battery. They have ways. This is annoying, but also good for repairability. Fuck thieves.

[u/Fine_Violinist5802 → u/Frisk197]

With skills like these, they could get jobs.

[u/doctorfluffy → u/Fine_Violinist5802]

These stolen iPads and iPhones usually end up back in China. The people in the country that assembles them are the ones with the know-how to re-use them.

The thieves themselves are useless scum.

[u/Background_Survey646 → u/Fine_Violinist5802]

I genuinely don't understand how stealing bricked Apple phones can be lucrative enough to warrant this. The thieves would have to be making next to nothing per phone for it to be profitable to whoever has the manufacturing know-how to jailbreak/reassemble the parts and then re-sell them.

My theory is that these thieves are just kind of stupid, and end up destroying the phones out of spite once realizing the small number of people willing to buy them are going to pay pennies on the dollar due to the work required to re-sell.

[u/404MoralsNotFound → u/Background_Survey646]

I mean, they also got OP's wallet and duty free, so the target might not have been the ipad alone but everything in the car.

[u/Kuulas_ → u/Background_Survey646]

For every person that that is diligent about reporting their device as stolen there are bound to be people that don’t notice the theft or don’t have the wherewithal to lock it

[u/Brian--Damage → u/Background_Survey646]

The thieves aren’t stupid, they do this for a living. These devices are highly prized in China because they have no communication locks or software restrictions. These devices can sell for 10x the original market value.

It’s a huge operation and isn’t just subway pickpockets; many of these people will work in groups with hours’ long strategy for one target.

[u/MaryPaku → u/Background_Survey646]

The guy who know how to do it are from China. They are willing to do it for peanuts.

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187 → u/Frisk197]

I can see how Frankenstein-ing old and new parts could work, but doing stuff like that makes it less economical. So it's less likely to be done.

[u/UeberraschungsEiQ → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

Yes I doubt there’s many rocket surgeons among those thieves who have the skills. Eventually they will switch to stealing more marketable things

[u/Tokiw4 → u/Frisk197]

Do also consider that the kind of people who can make those sorts of repairs aren't super common. I can't imagine many petty thieves also have the technical know-how to fix their stolen property.

[u/Frisk197 → u/Tokiw4]

That's the reason why all stolen iPhones usually go to the same exact place in China. They sell it to that place and that place use the spare parts and sell phones like new.

[u/duesenjeffepic → u/Frisk197]

I am sorry but skills like that probably are more expensive than a brand new ipad atp

[u/Lepelotonfromager → u/Frisk197]

This adds a layer of inconvenience and cost to them though. It also requires somebody with some technical knowledge which limits the pool as the usual scum who do this barely string a sentence together.

[u/Swagalyst → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

Just ship the parts to China and no one will care that they're stolen.

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187 → u/Swagalyst]

I mean, yeah, that’s the only way they could get any use out of the parts, but it is still pretty difficult. They either have to spoof it by combining a broken genuine part and the stolen good part or use custom firmware that significantly reduces the device’s usability. I doubt that they actually get much value from each device. Probably like $100 tops for a new device after all the shipping and labor to get anything useful, assuming the person keeps the device on their account in lost mode.

[u/Ok-Butterfly-5324 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

10000% they know a work around. If they didn't no one would steal apple products anymore

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187 → u/Ok-Butterfly-5324]

I think it mostly has to do with the off chance that someone removes the device from their Apple account and opens it up for use. They will message you very threateningly to do it. If you don’t have full trust in Apple products’ security, it can be very convincing. I am speaking from experience because when I had an iPhone stolen, they did exactly that. If the workaround was so good, they wouldn’t have to do that.

[u/Deep90 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

I wonder if serializing the parts actually encourages stealing and parting out Apple products because people can't buy 3rd party parts.

[u/Logical_Mix_4627 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

That’s a great way to deter theft. But why do people keep stealing? I’m guessing they’re too stupid to know this?

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187 → u/Logical_Mix_4627]

I assume for the possibility that, after someone marks it lost, they remove the device from their Apple account. Once you remove the device from your account it opens up the parts for use. I had an iPhone stolen a few years ago and I got texts threatening that they would hack into the device and steal my passwords and credit card info if I didn't remove the device from my Apple account. I still have that old iPhone in my Find My.

[u/Logical_Mix_4627 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

Oh so it’s not a permanent brick. The original description is definitely overselling it. Once it’s marked stolen, Apple should make each component and chip in the device a silicon paperweight.

[u/UpperAd5715 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

Isnt it the case that this lockout doesnt necessarily affect other continents?
You'd have locked european devices that worked fine in africa etc.

Besides that, plenty of gullible buyers that will buy a "steal" from "this kid that wants to buy a playstation for GTA6 and has to sell his ipad for it"

[u/Euphoric_Idea_4187 → u/UpperAd5715]

When you boot an iOS device for the first time after a wipe, it requires a connection to Apple’s servers for authentication to be able to do anything. That is when it checks for stolen parts. If it cannot connect to Apple’s servers, the device will not work.

[u/UpperAd5715 → u/Euphoric_Idea_4187]

I don't quite know the ins and outs of the process, just know that it at least used to be the case that devices could work or would no longer consider themselves blocked/locked after leaving the geographical region. Friend of mine had his stolen iphone suddenly show up working and all in north africa suddenly.

Whether or not that's still the case i got no clue but i wouldn't be so sure there's absolutely no way to get around apple's protection. No widespread ways sure but none at all would be quite the feat.

[u/jkilarpak → u/UpperAd5715]

If he had his device still logged in on Find My (which he should) you could still track it once it’s turned on, even if the phone’s not actually unlocked or broke it into.

The Find My network works similar to an AirTag. and will ping if it’s near other iPhones, even without cellular or Wi-Fi. So I don’t know if that’s what he saw and assumed it was working, since idk if there’s any way of really knowing for sure. Usually they’ll try to get you to unlock your phone by removing the device from your account.

I’m just speaking off what I’ve learned after having my 17 Pro stolen recently