Stolen Iphone. They turned it off, and it had a lock. What can they even do with it?

It was stolen from me, and I immediatly went and tracked it using find my Iphone. Apparently, it is turned off and has been for a few days. I have a lock on the phone, so they can't get into it. What can they do? If it is pawned to someone, won't it have to be turned on? I feel like at some point, they need to turn it on or it is nothing to them. Is this just a waiting game for me?

alex.lek wrote:
I'm confused about if they plug it in to restore it, will find my Iphone show the last known location on Icloud, or will that information be gone? I'm just trying to understand before I move on.
It depends how quick they are.  When an iPhone is power on, the location information is not instantly updated - it may take a few minutes before Location Services gets a stable location fix, find my iphone is activated and tries to talk to the iCloud servers, and the servers respond and the location information is exchanged.  And if they are inside, so GPS is impeded, then a location fix may take awhile as the system cycles through its options trying to get a location fix.
So if they power it up,plug it into iTunes, force recovery mode quickly enough, then it is unlikely the iCloud server will get the information before the wipe begins.
It just is not something you can count on as there are too many things that have to happen in succession, each with their own potential delays, and it really takes little time to power on an iOS device and initiate a restore.

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