Thieves return Android phone when they realize it's not an iPhone

[sofixa]

That's interesting, if anything I would have expected the opposite. With how tight Apple restrictions and DRM are (e.g. there's DRM on the screen and the phone will not work if you put in a non-approved one), what exactly is the market for stolen iPhones? Paperweights? Or the small non-DRM-able parts like... the case? maybe battery? buttons?

[taneliv]

In some parts of the world, it so happens that the robbers know how to operate Apple phones. They then use this skill to force the owner of the phone to unlock it and further find the banking apps or similar to get more money from the victim. If you don't know how Android works, you risk the owner signaling an emergency while trying to do the same.

Don't know if this is happening in the US, where this crime apparently took place.

[peoplefromibiza]

This is so unbelievable on so many levels that it reeks of marketing. iPhone sales are declining.

I would expect a thief to make the best out of any stolen goods, not to return it, even more so after directly approaching the victims on the streets with guns in hands, which should already be a crime bad enough that stealing a phone should almost not matter.

Anyway the most important bit of information for me as an European is that nobody is terrified that in the US it is consider normal to be robbed by armed men like that.

[neilalexander]

Parts for sure.

[beej71]

Android phone and a stick shift: Total protection against theft. ;)