Stolen iPad recovered with Find my iPhone - It works!

Question

Thought I would take a moment to share my experience using find my iPhone to recover my stolen iPad.
I recently had a layover at an airport in Michigan on my way to Toronto. Like an idiot, I left my iPad in the seat back on the first leg of my flight. I didn't realize it until I arrived at my destination in Toronto. I called the airline and was told that they couldn't send someone to look for it, but would happy to notify me when it was turned in if I filled out a lost article report on their website. They were confident that since it was left on the plane it would be turned in by their cleaning team.
After a few minutes I remembered Find my iPhone and activated the App on my iPhone. Within about 30 seconds I had a location on my iPad. It was still sitting in the terminal at the airport!
Fast forward to about 5:00 PM.....
I pull up the App again and see that my iPad is now moving away from the airport on the highway. After several minutes I watch as it turns into a neighborhood and pulls up outside of a house. There it stays for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile I have been sending alerts to the iPad screen with my contact information asking whoever has it to contact me immediately. Luckily they had not turned it off.
Now I am able to note the intersection nearest the location of my iPad and plug it into Google Maps. I find the house and drop a pin on it to reveal the street address. I then call the local Police, but they can't help me because I am not physically there to identify my property. Not what I was hoping for, but understandable.
My next idea was to find out if I can learn who owns the house and work out a way to conact them. I start looking for the local tax assessors office on the web and sure enough the database is accessible online. I now have the name of the owner in addition to the address! Now I figure I can contact the airline and give them this person's name to find out if they were working on the plan I was on. If so, at least they would be able to share that information with the airline and make it uncomfortable for the thief.
Now I am wondering if I can find the guys phone number! After a few web searches, I get a hit on the local version of the whitepages that gives me the phone number. I go ahead and call the number. To my surprise the guy answers the phone!
After getting hung up on a couple of times I was able to leave a voicemail with my contact information and let the person know I was pretty sure they worked for the airline since that is where I left my iPad. I assured him that I would not stop calling the airline with his name address and phone number until he lost his job unless he called me by tomorrow morning and made arrangements to return my property. Sure enough it turned out he works for the airline and called me back at 10:30 that night. After explaining to me that this was all a mistake he agreed to return it to me via fed ex next day delivery. I agreed to consider the matter closed and not pursue it any further with his employer if I received it back undamaged.
36 hours later I received my iPad back! I had initated a wipe on the device, so had to restore from back up, but besides that everything was great!
The moral of the story is to make sure you know how to use find my iPhone!! It could save you a lot of money!
PS, I know that I lost my iPad by leaving it on the plane. However, that does not give the airline employee the right to keep it. When he took it home with him, it went from lost to stolen...

Answer 1

Great sleuthing and story.  It's great you got your iPad back.  And that guy should really lose his job, but you said you wouldn't report him and I'm sure you're going to keep your word.  I wonder though, how many other people's possessions he's taken home with him.  How some people can sleep at night is beyond me. 
I once went to the grocery store to pick up one item.  I didn't need a cart. so of course I manged to remember other items I needed, and when I realized I couldn't hold everything, I put a bar of soap in my coat pocket and knew I'd remember to pay for it at checkout.  When I got home, I realized I still had the bar of soap and I had not paid for it.  So, I drove right back to store and walked up to the manager and explained what I did and that I wanted to pay for the bar of soap.  I think he thought I'd lost my mind, but I could never take something that didn't belong to me.
Anyway, thanks for the good story with a great ending!