By As much as we love Find My Phone apps around here, it seems not everyone is quite as pleased with them. A bizarre issue is causing one Atlanta couple much grief: people looking for their lost or stolen phones keep “finding” them at their house.
The couple reportedly received over a dozen visits to the same house, some by those who lost the phone, and some even by police who received the tips. In fact, the situation seemingly became so severe that a search of the house was eventually warranted.
The police found nothing in any of these instances. It can’t be that this couple happens to be the greatest smartphone thieves in history, of course, so many are pointing to some strange issue with the way these apps report location data. It could be any number of things, from errors in the triangulation process to errant WiFi maps. The issue seems to be unrelated to network trouble as it happens on a wide variety of carriers.
Unfortunately for the companies, the issues may well continue for the foreseeable future. Their parents own the house, so moving isn’t a simple matter. There’s also nothing they can do to keep police from visiting multiple times as there’s no protocol for handling situations like these.
Their hope is that their story will help bring to light this growing problem, and that they — and other folks — won’t have to be subject to this inadvertent harrassment in the future. Have you ever had your phone tracking app give you the wrong location for your lost phone? Be sure to let us know with a comment below.
[via Fusion]
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