iPad GPS leads police to stolen goods

Idaho Falls police say they were able to track down an iPad and several other stolen items by using the iPad’s GPS tracking feature.

Police say the iPad was taken from a parked car on the 1100 block of Clarence Drive and reported stolen Wednesday morning.

Tuesday night, Mike Manwill said the same people who stole the iPad stole a backpack from his pickup truck on Harrisburg Lane.

Manwill said police were able to recover his backpack using location information provided to them by the owner of the iPad.

“The officers told me they went right to their house, knocked on the door, said, you know, ‘Hey, we’re the police. We know you stole this ’cause we’ve got the iPad GPS,’ you know, and they ‘fessed up right there,” said Manwill.

But as GPS technology becomes more prolific, police are reminding people not to try to track down thieves on their own.

“We advise against it. You never know who — what situation you might run into if you take that type of stance or take that initiative,” said Joleyn Hansen, spokeswoman for the Idaho Falls Police Department.

Manwill said he’ll call the police in the future, especially given the fine work he said they did retrieving the iPad.

“Ten years ago, this would have probably never in a million years happened, and it’s just so cool off of an iPad and a GPS function they’re able to go right to the people’s house that did that. I mean, within a matter of hours,” said Manwill.

Nicholas P. Graham, 21, of Idaho Falls, and Jonathan J. Rutledge, 19, of Ammon were given citations for petty theft. They were not arrested.