As a lot of you know, I went to Jamaica for a few days this past weekend. We had an amazing trip, you can check out some of the pictures on my Flickr page. The food was great, the weather was beautiful, and the scenery was fantastic. It was a very smooth and stress free trip. That was, until we got out of the taxi at the Montego Bay airport; to return home. I got out of the van in such a hurry that I didn’t pick up my phone from the seat. The second we walked into the airport; I realized what had happened, so I ran outside to see if the taxi was still there. Of course it was gone. Every taxi in Jamaica looks the same, a white Toyota van. They were everywhere, but I didn’t see our driver. I felt like such an idiot.

I went back in the airport, in complete dismay. Then it hit me. “I have a iPhone! I have a MobileMe account, we can track it! ” So, I grab a friends phone and called my friend Jeremy. I told him what had happened and gave him my login to MobileMe. Jeremy was not around a computer, but did have his 3G iPad with him; wiithin minutes we located that the phone, and it was right outside the airport. My next thought, was to call the iPhone, maybe Curtis (our upstanding taxi driver ) would answer my phone, and just bring it inside the airport. That would be the right thing to do, right?

Ring, ring, ring .. “Hello?” .. I ask for Curtis and hear the person on the other end of the phone yell for him. (I’m thinking, this is way too easy. Thank God this is going so smooth.) 1 minute of being on hold turns to 5, and still no one comes to the phone. I hear people talking and dogs barking. I hang up, and try calling back again, only to get the same result. Someone answers and just lays the phone down. I’m starting to get really frustrated at this point. My phone is right outside the airport, I know someone has it, but I can’t get to it. Yes, I was a idiot for leaving it there, but come on, really? So, I call Jeremy back.

One of the great features of Find iPhone with MobileMe is the remote lock. I get him to lock the phone so that no one can do anything but answer it. This will of course protect all my data, which is the key thing at this point. I now have to go through customs and get checked in so I don’t miss my flight. Jeremy continues to track the phone and also tries calling it while I go through this process.

Once out of customs, I call Jeremy back to see what the status is, and he said it’s moved but it’s still right outside the airport. I’m even more frustrated at this point, because now that I’m through customs there is no way I would make the flight if I were to leave. I ask Jeremy to keep trying to call and track it, but if he doesn’t make any headway by the time I’m off the ground to go head and remotely wipe it. With MobileMe, you can send a message to a phone, remotely lock your phone, or remotely wipe all data. Amazing features for the consumer.

Jeremy sends a message to the phone. “This phone is being tracked via GPS, please return to the airport and deliver to a security guard. They are expecting you” A few minutes pass, and Jeremy refreshes the tracking map, still no dice. The phone is in the same location. I take off, thinking nothing else can be done and just come to the resolve that I’m going to have to buy a new iPhone.( I’m kicking myself in the butt the whole way home, but know there is nothing I can do now.)

We land in Charlotte, and I think to myself “I really hope my parents haven’t tried to call me and see if we’ve landed” If they call and some Jamaican answers my phone, lays it down, and all my parents  hear is yelling and dogs barking; like I did almost 10 times. They would be really freaked out. My dad would be ready to fly to Jamaica and kill someone. So, I immediately grab someone’s phone and call him, to tell him what happened. Come to find out, he actually did call my phone, but luckily no one answered this time.

I get home and immediately call AT&T so they can suspend my service. I then call Jeremy to see if anything else had come up while we were in the air and driving home. Come to find out, more happened than I could have ever imagined. This is where the story really gets good. Jeremy continued to track the phone even as it was driving down the road. He was calling the police departments in the different parishes as the phone was moving. Calling ahead and telling them the story and where the phone was. He had one department actually willing go help and go search for the phone, but they didn’t know who or what kind of car they were looking for. Everything happened so fast while we were at the airport, I hadn’t told him some of the most critical details. I knew the taxi company and name of the driver, but Jeremy did not. The police officers (Constables) at just about every parish, asked Jeremy the description of the vehicle and driver.

Jeremy tracked the phone until about 2:45pm, then the phone stopped moving. He continued to check on it every 15/20 minutes or so up until about 5:30; when it re-appeared on the map, and moving again! Jeremy called the Freeport Police station in Montego Bay. The phone is literally 30 seconds from this parish. (click image)

Jeremy emails the constable a screenshot of the location of the phone. The officer was willing to talk to him while he searched for the phone, but we couldn’t get any more movement on the phone.

Jeremy also tried reaching out to people on twitter, and got responses from 2 people in Jamaica pretty instantly. Unfortunately they were not in Montego Bay where the phone was.

The last location we have for it was about 6:15pm when the phone stopped and hasn’t moved since then. My phone is here .. http://megamartcaribbean.com/ Here is the Find iPhone view ..

This story was SOOO close to be a amazing PR story for the iPhone, Apple, the Find iPhone service, and AT & T. It really show’s how with technology you can do things you never could before. It ended up being an expensive scavenger hunt for me, but definitely a testament to how these features are for our benefit. Without the service, who ever had my phone would have had access to all my data. We were able to lock it down and eventually I sent a remote wipe request, so the phone will be completely wiped. I’m out the phone, but all my personal data is safe, which is priceless.

This definitely sounds like something out of a Jason Bourne movie, but was as real life as could be. I’m just super thankful for a friend like Jeremy that would take the time to go through all this to try and help a someone get their phone back. I will be going to the AT&T store in the morning to get a new iPhone.

Here is a gallery of all the screen shots as Jeremy tracked the phone.