The mugger shot app

Once upon a time, pickpockets were said to be caught “red-handed” but now, thanks to new apps, some unwitting thieves are being caught red-faced — snapped as they try to unlock iPhones they've stolen.

More than 170 iPhones are stolen in London every day and most of them disappear without trace, despite the built-in Find My iPhone software used by the police to track down robbers. One reason is that criminals use technology to “jailbreak” the iPhone, taking them out of Apple’s closely controlled system so they can resell them outside the UK. But that same jailbreaking technology can be used to install an app that might make it easier to recover your iPhone.

The iGotYa app takes an automatic photo of anyone attempting to incorrectly enter a passcode to unlock an iPhone and emails the owner the location using the iPhone’s built-in GPS.

Just this week, someone, possibly not the thief herself, was photographed attempting to unlock an Apple iPhone 4 that was stolen in a Brighton nightclub. There have been multiple prosecutions in the US following thieves being caught this way.

The problem is that this app is not available on the main Apple iPhone app store. That’s because it alters Apple’s operating system and the device-tracking elements are already found within its own Find My iPhone app. But if you decide to jailbreak your iPhone, you can install this — and other apps that Apple isn’t that keen on. Jail-breaking is the only route to accessing pirated content. Because it’s also the main way to use an iPhone on a different network, the practice has become popular and it’s easy to do.

As great as the iGotYa app is, because it only works with jailbroken iPhones, some users are not going to feel confident installing it. There are alternatives but they don’t work quite as well.

After I was mugged for my iPhone, I experimented with using a different app called PanicGuard. Unlike iGotYa, it doesn’t work in the background. Every time you think you might be in danger, in my case when I walk down the street I was mugged on, you have to turn the app on.

It then starts broadcasting back to the PanicGuard database exactly where you are. If your phone then gets violently shaken or you activate an alarm by double clicking on the screen, the app triggers your iPhone’s video camera. This video and your location is broadcast live to your emergency contacts and the video and the location of the iPhone posted on Facebook and Twitter.

But be careful not to set off your PanicGuard by accident: I did and then went to sleep. When I awoke, I found I had received 15 calls from my mother and father, convinced I’d just been the victim of another mugging.

@benjamincohen

The process for jailbreaking an iPhone differs depending on the model and the version of the operating system (OS) it is running.