Lost/stolen iPod touch!... Data privacy/Find my iPhone questions

Question

Recently, I lost my iPod in public and believe it may have been grabbed by someone else. I know this because I checked Gmail and saw an access to my account from an IP address in the same location where I lost it, but far after I left the place. (at my college)
So, I immediately went onto Find My iPhone (hereafter "FMI"), and issued a remote wipe and a message. However, even now, two days later, FMI still shows "pending" for everything. This indicates to me that the device has not been powered on anytime in such a way that would have had it check in with FMI.
I did not have any on-device lock (unfortunately) so someone could have quickly started reading through information on the device, so I've already taken appropriate precautions. However, I do have a couple questions:
1. If someone stole the device with the intent to keep it, and simply immediately attached it to a computer and performed a Restore on it, would this not destroy its link to FMI and thus cause the behavior I'm witnessing? (It's of course always possible it was turned into a lost-and-found desk or something, and I'm having that checked on, but no success yet. There are several desks on the campus and they have to check all of them manually...)
2. In a similar fashion, would someone be able to simply go in and shut off the link to MobileMe, or would they need my password to do that? (e.g. go into Settings and remove the MobileMe account from the mail accounts section, thus disabling FMI). If they can do this without my Apple password, wouldn't this also make the device "invisible" to FMI?
For both of the above, I have to assume that the person did this while not in range of any known Wifi network. Since the iPod touch doesn't have a persistent connection unless it's near known Wifi networks, a person could easily steal the device, check that it works (which is why I saw the Gmail access), take it home and never register it to their own Wifi network until after they've disabled whatever would cause the device to react to FMI.
And, if the second question is true, then by disabling FMI they'd also be able to retain access to my personal information on the device, even though I issued the wipe command. (again, if they removed the MobileMe account PRIOR to connecting to their own Wifi with it)
Losing the device is tough, but I'm even more concerned about the idea that someone could still be accessing my personal data even though I issued the remote wipe command. (If they did a Restore, that's obviously not the case, but if they were able to remove the MobileMe account, it would be!)
I'd appreciate any advice anyone has about the more in-depth workings of this system...
Thanks in advance,
FM

Answer 1

- If they restored your iPod that will erase the FMI from the iPod.
- To my knowledge, they can just delete you MobileMe mail account from the Ipod (unless you set restrictions to prevent changing mail accounts) since that will delete the FMI
- As you found out, the FMI feature has a lot of loopholes.