She said the robbers were bold taking her husband’s phone, but then giving it back because it wasn’t to their liking.
“They basically looked at that phone and was like ‘Oh, that’s an Android? We don’t want this. I thought it was an iPhone,’” she said.
I thought iPhones where basically a brick if stollen.
I’ve seen cases where the thieves demand you to unlock your phone at gunpoint before leaving, so they can do whatever before you get a chance to remotely brick it.
they are, but many of their parts are valuable as after-market items, such as the screens and batteries.
How? They are all locked to that specific device. Installing a screen or battery from another iPhone will disable features on the iPhone it’s installed in. I’m surprised there’s still a market for that.
Parts are paired to devices, but some parts will still worked unpaired but with reduced functionality. On the iPhone 15 Pro for example, a transplanted screen will not have True Tone and auto-brightness.
There are plenty of unscrupulous phone repairers who will harvest parts from stolen phones and pass them off to unknowing customers.
they’re supposed to be or to have reduced functionality of black marketed parts like this. then again, one shouldn’t expect a technician who buys stolen parts to be scrupulous…
I did not think of that.