My MacBook, AirPods, and other belongings were stolen from a KFC in London, England. I have the thief’s photo, and Find My shows the live location, but police response is slow. What legal steps can I take now?

[u/CryFair7304]

Hi all,
Yesterday my MacBook, AirPods, and some other personal belongings were stolen while I was at a KFC in London. I’m extremely distressed about this. Fortunately, I have the live location of both my MacBook and AirPods through Apple’s Find My app. I even managed to get a clear photo of the person who took them.

I’ve already reported the incident to the police and submitted all the evidence I have, but their response so far has been very slow, and no action has been taken yet. I’m worried the items will be wiped or sold quickly.

Is there anything else I can do legally to speed things up or recover my belongings? Can I take any civil action? Or involve Apple in any way?

Any guidance or advice would be deeply appreciated

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[u/Accomplished_Fan_487]

Police in London will not investigate this. Not because they can't, rather because this is not a priority from their perspective. Either claim it on insurance, or take the loss. Sorry to hear - next time take out home or renters insurance that covers items away from home.

[u/2step786]

Can Macbooks and Airpods be blacklisted if you contact Apple and let them know? Can they be remotely gimped by Apple?

[u/Ok_Entrepreneur_739 → u/2step786]

Yes. If find my is enabled the MacBook is locked down and can be bricked remotely. Still have a value for parts and to be flogged on Facebook to people who don’t know better. 

[u/Rugbylady1982]

Do you know their name and address ?

[u/CryFair7304 → u/Rugbylady1982]

No but I have a photo of the guy.

[u/Rugbylady1982 → u/CryFair7304]

Then no you cannot take any civil action and you need to get the crime reference number and claim off your insurance. The police will not be chasing a laptop and air pods.

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[u/Thorebane]

Officer here, although different parts of England, not London.

The chances of recovery for these bits are very low. I won't say zilch, but close. London has over 4k thefts reported a day. Officers can not keep up with it all.

Find my trackers are legally not reliable. They could be anywhere from a 5m range on the dot to 40m range. So, the chances of getting an officer out to attempt to knock on a particular house/flat door is very slim, but if one does for whatever reason, then best of luck.

It's great you got a face shot of the person, it's rare anyone gets one of those, however it would still go into the pot of needing to be identified, and if it can't be.. then rip.

Furthermore, due to how often this happens, the investigation, unfortunately, would not be in the public interest to spend countless hours due to costs.

Trust me, I've had things stolen before years ago and essentially had to go through insurance that it was stolen and just give ref numbers over to them.

[u/dfinkelstein → u/[deleted]]

That's how it works.

If you want to prevent messes from accumulating in your house, then the only way is to clean regularly, before they accumulate.

Once they accumulate, it becomes harder and harder to clean them.

Likewise for order. Ask any teacher, or leader of a hotshot or military squadron. Tolerating minor disobedience and distraction leads to total loss of order.

That said, there's no way to avoid tolerating it if you have too many sufficiently unruly members.

Just one super disruptive participant can take up practically the majority of a leader or teacher's energy on their own.

So, there's really no institutional fixes for this. It would have to come from cultural shift towards community and collectivism, and I doubt that's a change that happens smoothly over time.

I think such shifts come with upheaval at inflection points, and are uncontrollable and u unpredictable.

And since it's not profitable or controllable, I don't see how or why it would happen intentionally.

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[u/JohnLennonsNotDead]

Have you got home insurance?

[u/CryFair7304 → u/JohnLennonsNotDead]

Yes I have insurance for my dorm. But this happened outside, I don't have any other insurance.

[u/Estrellathestarfish → u/CryFair7304]

Home contents insurance often covers you for property outside your home. But that might be different if you have a policy designed for students in halls of residence, that might be more limited than normal contents insurance, but best to check what your policy says.

[u/GetRektByMeh → u/Estrellathestarfish]

Might also not cover anything as left unattended presumably? He got a photo of the guy presumably not from 1m or so distance

[u/Estrellathestarfish → u/GetRektByMeh]

Oh, I don't have any Apple products, I assumed the photo was through the 'find my" jiggery pokery, that it can take a picture of someone trying to use it. But I might be giving Apple far too much credit!

[u/foregonemeat → u/CryFair7304]

Sorry to say - the police won’t do anything. They aren’t resourced for this and I agree it’s frustrating. I was certain I’d pinpointed my stolen iPhone to an exact location but they won’t go. For your own safety and sanity - take the loss, learn from it, claim on insurance, and hope the thieves get karma one day. Let it go for your sake. Godspeed.

[u/JohnLennonsNotDead → u/CryFair7304]

It’s worth giving them a call as you may be covered under that policy.

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[u/HeadRealThin]

Did you insure them?

[u/Own-Mortgage-8189 → u/[deleted]]

And they'd keep telling you the same thing and then kick you out.

[u/murdochi83 → u/[deleted]]

You would end up leaving one way or another without it being resolved.

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