Another stolen iPhone 4s

Question

I know this subject has been beaten to death on every forum on the internet but I am doing it again!
My wife's iPhone 4S was stolen at Universal Studios Orlando. The thief knew what they were doing because they turned it off immediatly so it cannot be tracked. I guess their next step is to do a clean restore and I'm sol.
Here's my issue. I called AT&T after hours support number and was told that they could put an IMEI block on the phone and tag it, so that if the thief ever tried to register it, it would not allow it and would tell AT&T that is was stolen. They would try track it. Fantastic, this is exactly what I wanted. However, the operator told me that I should wait a few days to see if they switch it back on, so I could track it with Find My iPhone as this was a more reliable method.
I did that and then decided to go ahead a block it. Now when I call AT&T, nobody (and I have been though 5 levels of supervisors) is able to do this block. They claim it is not something that they can do.
Why on earth would this after hours support operator be so knowledgable about the workings of this IMEI block, if it was not possible and not something they offer ?? This makes no sense.  If this guy was just blowing smoke about it, then why in the world don't they offer this (apart from the obviouse profit center in stolen iPhones).
This being my 2nd iPhone stolen and both times both Apple and AT&T's complete lack of interest in helping have left a very bad taste. In my case, the phone is covered by my Amex insurance and the money is not the point (Although I am sure it is for lots of others who have had their phone's stolen).
The point is that I don't want this thief to get away with this. Both of these companies have the ability and infrastructure to block stolen iPhones (they've done it in the past for illegal tethering etc.), however they choose not to as it is a huge profit center. Almost all overseas cell providers do this. What is required to get Apple and AT&T to do the right thing ?

Answer 1

Apparently everyone else at AT&T have never heard of it either. I'm just telling you what this first guy told me in great detail and I would love to know if the calls really are recorded. Then again he was probably from India, where (like everywhere else) they do block stolen IMEI numbers, so who knows ?
To you're 2nd point, it's only in the US where the providers and manufacturers don't do anything. It's big money to providers and I bet they have lobbyists fighting things like this.
The Privacy Act argument is ludicrous. If you have a police report and case number, you can use any legal method to find your property. A thief attempting to register a stolen phone should be immediatly tracked. However, if that is too "Big Brother" for you, then simply not allowing them to register it, is all that is required to deter the thefts. It is still your property and you have the right to disable it.
Also if Privacy was the issue why are companies allowed to sell laptop tracking software, lowjacks etc. I don't buy that argument at all.
The point is that they can stop these thefts if they want to, especially smart phones that need to be registered to used.