On April 29, 2013, a 45 year old Saanich resident contacted Police with the belief that his cellular phone had been lost or stolen. The complainant advised that he was tracking his smartphone and that the phone appeared to be moving throughout Saanich, leading the complainant to believe that someone was in possession of his phone.
Investigators determined that a free application called Find My iPhone had been installed on the device by the complainant. This application is designed to assist in locating missing devices.
Based on information from the owner of the phone, police attended to a residence in the 2200 block of Galaxy Place. Numerous organic waste bins were found at that location and it was determined that the phone may have been inadvertently placed into one of the waste bins by the phone owner the previous evening while he was visiting a restaurant at Uptown Center.
Police assisted the owner of the phone by moving each of the bins separately which ultimately led to the identifying which waste bin contained the phone. The phone owner searched the bin and located the phone unharmed.
The phone owner is thankful that he installed the free application on his smartphone, and that the phone still had enough battery power to provide its location.
13-7872
Sgt. Steve Eassie #158