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Gustavo Huerta woke up to Halloween in 2018 to find out that he was missing an SUV – as well as $ 8,000 worth of electronic devices that remained at the time. inside.

Later in the day, Huerta discovered that his 2006 stolen Dodge Durango had been totaled and abandoned after being used to commit a robbery. His devices, including an Apple Watch, a laptop and a camera were not found.

"I was mortified," said Huerta. "I had spent thousands repairing (the car). Some of these equipments were offered by people who believed in the work I do, "said Huerta, photojournalist. The rest were items for which I had saved years of paychecks. It was devastating. "

With limited help from the police, Huerta has done what a growing number of robbery victims are doing. He put his gadget hat on for the inspector, tracing the location of his valuables with the help of technology at hand.

For most of the technological history, the victims of the robbery have gone through the four stages of mourning: shock, anger, bereavement and the acceptance to never see their property again.

Enter the digital age.

Advances in gadgetry allow consumers to easily act as high-tech amateur detectives in search of stolen purchases. Device locator services, digital marketplaces and websites dedicated to lost gadgets offer new options for those who are desperate to recover their assets, with or without the help of the forces of the world. 39; order.

"My responsible detective has literally said," What do you want me to do? You will have to suffer defeat, "Huerta said.

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It was not good enough for Huerta. Using Find My iPhone and several calls to the cops, he managed to find a suspect carrying his Apple Watch within 24 hours. He continued to search for the rest of his articles by conducting periodic searches on social media sites and markets such as Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and OfferUp.

Gustavo Huerta discovered his camera stolen from the Facebook market a month after thieves stole $ 8,000 from him. (Photo: Gustavo Huerta)

Tiffany Mooney, 29, lost her life Samsung Galaxy S7 Active during a shopping trip to Hanceville, Alabama, in 2018.

Thanks to the location services on the phone, she could see that the device was on and on the move, but as she continued to call her number, no one answered.

"After calling over a dozen times, no one intercepted it – I turned to Google to" find my device, "Mooney said." That's me. gave me the option to lock my phone, erase all my files or trigger an alarm. "She chose the last one.

"After triggering the alarm, the people who stole it decided to get it back," Mooney said. "They were surprised when I told them that I knew exactly where they were."

People who had the phone agreed to go to a local gas station to return his phone to Mooney, but not before repeatedly trying to unlock him, Mooney said.

Nick Jordan, of Boulder, Colorado, used Find My iPhone to locate the stolen device of his girlfriend who had gone missing at a party last year.

The 27-year-old walked to the accused's house "prepared for a possible fight" but moved away unharmed.

"Fortunately for me, it was a house I recognized. I knew someone who lived there. I basically said to him: Look, I know there is a phone in this house. I do not want the police involved and I managed to get it back. "

Nevertheless, anyone who loses their gadgets can not locate them easily, if at all.

Gustavo Huerta saw his technology on Facebook Marketplace a month after the theft of his devices. (Photo: Gustavo Huerta)

"Nowadays, suspects immediately turn off mobile phones, so most people simply can not locate them," said Jeff Brieden, senior police officer at the Houston Police Department. Brieden was not involved in the case of Huerta.

In fact, a study of robbery victims carried out by IDG Research revealed that 1 in 10 Americans of smartphones were victims of a telephone theft. Of these, 68% of the victims were unable to recover their devices after the flight.

"There are many things that need to be in place for us to find," Brieden said. "GPS can drive you to an apartment complex, but rarely to an apartment or a particular house."

Whether locating services lead you directly to the criminal or not, trying to get your technician from thieves, burglars and pickpockets can be dangerous.

In 2015, an 18-year-old man, Jeremy Cook, was shot dead after trying to recover his stolen iPhone from thieves in Ontario, Canada. In the middle of the night, Cook and his sister used the Find My iPhone app to locate the smartphone he had after leaving the device in a taxi.

He died as a result of a gunshot wound in his chest after clashing with a group of men carrying the device, police said on CBC News.

"You never want to take matters into your own hands Every time a crime is committed, you want to involve the police," said Brieden. Brieden worked for 11 years in the robbery division of the Houston Police Department.

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Stolen technology devices, which can easily be converted into cash, often appear in online markets such as Facebook and Craigslist, where sellers can almost anonymously trade products against unsuspecting buyers.

Facebook and OfferUp both have ways to report stolen merchandise sellers. Craigslist offers tips to avoid fraud on its platform. USA TODAY solicited comments from Facebook, OfferUp and Craigslist.

"In large metropolitan areas, a stolen smartphone is worth between $ 100 and $ 300, without question," said Eugene Roy, Chief Inspector of the Chicago Police Department before retiring. Thieves can sell the devices to small stores that can unlock a phone, remove the SIM card and resell it as an updated device, he said.

To combat this, the US wireless industry, through its commercial group, CTIA, has launched a tool in 2017 that allows users to search if a phone has been lost or stolen.

Called the stolen phone tester, the service works by searching for IMEI, MEID or ESN numbers from a device – unique codes that smartphone developers have assigned to each smart device.

Since its launch, the number of consumers reporting a stolen phone has dropped by nearly 60%, according to the CTIA.

It took nearly two months to equip Huerta's camera to appear on Facebook Marketplace. He asked a friend to contact the seller on the social networking site and the suspect finally told them that he had decided to sell everything to a pawnbroker located in Northline, Houston.

(Photo: Getty Images)

"The pawnshop was really a little hostile or resistant when I went to collect my things," Huerta said. "But once the cops came in to help, they were more accommodating and took me more seriously." The photographic material is currently in custody.

Brieden said the Houston authorities sometimes found stolen devices in kiosks, like the ecoMATs, which offer money for old or broken phones He said thieves tend to share profits with a third party who drops the cell phone in the kiosk.

In the United States, some communities offer "safe zones," where people can meet strangers safely to sell devices or pick up their smartphones from good Samaritans. These areas are often located near police stations and are closely monitored by a camera, said Roy. "You never know who's on the other end of the phone or text messaging," Roy said. "The last thing you want to do is prepare yourself to be robbed."

People should think about how they would locate their devices even before they are stolen, Brieden said.

"Many people are waiting to be victims before knowing how they are going to find their phone," Brieden said. "It's important to remember that location services must be turned on and the phone must be turned on," so you can recover it.

Have you used technology to track your stolen property? Tell Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown

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