A few days ago Ben Anderson left his brand new 4G cell phone in a movie theater.
“I was watching a dinner theater movie and I ended up leaving it there,” said Anderson. “Without a contract the phone was running about $500 and $600 dollars.”
Determined to find out what happened to his phone and hopefully get it back, he turned to his computer and a free GPS tracking app.
“From my computer I installed the GPS tracking app on my phone and started to track where the person was,” said Anderson.
The GPS tracking app called “Where’s My Droid?” allowed him to send a secret text message to his phone that replied with an exact location.
When you lose your phone while the ringer is turned off it can be impossible to find it. Where’s My Droid fixes that problem. After texting your phone a custom attention word the app turns the ringer volume up and makes your phone ring.
It’s also possible to get the GPS location of your phone in latitude and longitude and a link to Google maps.
“As long as there was a shred of chance that we could get it back I was willing to persist in chasing him down,” said Anderson.
His first location text, sent the same night he lost his phone, showed his phone sitting at a seven-story apartment complex. It sat there for two days.
“Then on Sunday I tracked the phone from my computer and realized he was moving and he had left the apartment,” said Anderson.
That’s when Anderson and a friend took to the streets with a laptop and an wireless card and drove around, tracking the suspect’s every move.
“We were trying to wait until the guy stopped.”
He didn’t make it easy, stopping at three different bars and two gas stations before returning home.
“He didn’t spend longer than a half an hour at each place. It was crazy how fast he was moving,” said Anderson.
After he located a car, he called police and they took over.
“I almost felt bad for him, he got arrested for DUI also. For going to 4 bars and drinking and driving,” said Anderson.
The man was arrested back at his apartment in the parking garage.
“And I got my phone back,” said Anderson.
The application by the way is free to download and can be controlled remotely.
This story was reported by Lauren Squires of WOWT News.
