How do I get my stolen iPhone back?

Question

My son had his iPhone 4 stolen this past June.  I never reported it nor even disconnected it.  I didn't think much of it.  We use Verizon, btw.
I got my son the new iPhone 4S to replace his stolen one, and decided to get myself one as well.  I plugged his number into the find my phone app so I could track his whereabouts.  Low and behold, two entries come up under his name.  One say's Thismother'sson's phone, the other says, Thismother'sson's iPhone.   Evidently, his stolen phone is being tracked too.  I went to the apple store and they told me that it was being tracked by serial number.  I really don't know how this all works, but there you have it.  I still have the box for the phone, which has the serial number, etc. on it.  So now, through a little investigative work, I was able to determine who has his phone.  I have the name, home phone number and address of the person that has his old phone.  I am positive of this, but it is too long to explain why I am so sure.
I went to my local police precinct, but they said they couldn't help me because it is considered "lost" property, not stolen property, since my son wasn't robbed at knife point, nor did he see who actually stole it.  They suggested that I call the person up and ask for the phone back.  I can't imagine that this person would just hand me back the phone, however.
Any suggestions or am I just SOL.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can't get them back from iCloud. Unless you imported the photos to your computer or unless you backed up all of the photos in iCloud and you have another iOS device from which you can restore the phone backup - you can't recover the photos. iCloud is not for storage of files, photos and data that you can selectively download to your computer or iOS device. iCloud is for backups of your devices.