• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

My phone's been stolen with naked pictures of my baby

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

stoleniphone

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

A few weeks ago I took pictures of my baby girl as she was playing without her diaper on. I give her time every day without one so her skin can get some air. She's almost 6 months and has had not even a single case of mild diaper rash. She discovered her feet, so I was taking pictures of her playing with her feet to show her daddy when he got home. Pictures that, when I was a baby, every parent took because it was no big deal.

Well my phone's been stolen. Saturday before this past one. At first we thought it was lost by us, but still reported it to AT&T. I ended up in emergency surgery the next day, so we only called a few times, it would ring, go to voicemail, then finally it went right to voicemail and we figured it was lost and the battery was dead.

Today my husband's phone was shut off, despite the bill being paid on the 4th. This prompted us to check our online statement (we've since figured out the line was suspended because we didn't update our address after moving and mail bounced). And what we saw is that someone is currently using my phone, sending text messages and picture messages, identified as "multimedia message sent". Someone's sent pictures to an e-mail address as well as to a phone number in our same area code.

Obviously this phone is considered stolen. There's been no attempt at locating the owner, as California law requires, which would be easy to do - not only have we sent messages to it, but my e-mail is set up to be accesses just by touching the e-mail button. Someone could send me an e-mail. Or call the contact in my directory titled Mom. Or simply reply to the messages we've sent saying this phone is lost, please call and then my husband's phone number. Or take it to Apple since Apple can locate owners of phones (especially since my husband works for Apple and there's a good chance that the store someone would take it to is the one he works at, only one of two within a very large radius). Or ANSWER IT WHEN WE CALL IT REPEATEDLY.

Now we have a police report and have reported it to Apple (it's an iPhone) in addition to AT&T. Apparently, if someone takes the phone in for activation, it will show up by serial number as stolen and be confiscated.

Now my problem is I'm extremely uncomfortable not knowing what pictures are being sent off my phone, and not knowing who is now in possession of naked pictures of my baby daughter. Can whoever has my phone be charged with possession of child pornography? Especially if it turns out that this thief is sending those pictures to others? In addition with being charged with possession of stolen property? Yes, I'm this pissed that, if I find out who has my phone, I will not hesitate to request charges be pressed. There's NO EXCUSE for not trying to find the owner of something when the owner has called the number, and then to proceed to use the phone for personal use when someone else (my husband) is paying for it.
 


Isis1

Senior Member
i'm going to touch on the child pornography part. unless you are going to admit you took them for the purposes of child porn....please don't wave that word around.
 

stoleniphone

Junior Member
I took pictures of my baby playing as she was discovering her feet and she was trying to suck on her big toes and then kicking her legs excitedly, and wanted to share these moments with her daddy, who has so far missed every new thing she's learned or discovered. Or is taking pictures of one's one child playing now not legal? Really, is it illegal to take pictures of one's own child playing to share with the other parent? Most parents I know do, and several even share silly bath moments of their kids on Facebook. I wouldn't post them, only shared with her daddy, "Look! She found her feet and thinks her toes are tasty!"

An unknown person may be sending those photos around for only god knows what purpose, certainly not to share with her father the first moments she learned she has feet, which was why I took them.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
Can whoever has my phone be charged with possession of child pornography?
If you have child porn on your phone, yes they could and it would surely come back onto you. If it was porn when you put it on there, it is still porn.

Now, what I think you mean is:

can the thief be charged with possessing child porn or sending child porn because of the pictures of your naked child?, the answer would depend on what they did with the pics. If they send the pics to others with the intent to sexually arouse them, yes, that would be distributing child porn. Possession of a pic of a naked child, in itself, is not child porn. There has to be an intent that makes it porn for such charges to be appropriate.

and is there some reason you just can't have the phone turned off? Heck, Apple is proud of the fact that they continue to have more control over an I-phone than the "owner" does. One would think the phone could be turned off remotely,.

There's NO EXCUSE for not trying to find the owner of something when the owner has called the number, and then to proceed to use the phone for personal use when someone else (my husband) is paying for it.
You really don't understand this stealing thing, do you?
 

stoleniphone

Junior Member
There was no intent of anything sexual when I took pictures of my baby playing with her feet as she learned she had them. It just happened to be during time when I let her skin be exposed to air since air is good for the skin and makes it healthier.

What other reason could there be for sending these pictures of her, if these are indeed the pictures being sent? (They were the most recent taken, which is why I'm concerned these could be what's sent.)

Layman, it's been made clear, since the loss/theft of the iPhone 4G prototype that finders-keepers isn't the law of the land, that a finder must make a reasonable effort to find the owner of a found object before retaining it for person use. To keep it for personal use right away is considered to be theft. This is why the finder of the iPhone is facing charges, and the buyer of the phone is facing charges of buying stolen property. Also the person who has it has been using it while we're being charged for it. They are knowingly costing us money without authorization.

We reported the phone to AT&T and thought that was the end of it, that it would be shut off. We found out this afternoon that it wasn't and has still been used. The phone can be remotely bricked IF MobileMe was installed on it. If MM was on it, then we could track its location via GPS. What APple can do is note the account and if someone brings the phone in to have it activated on a new line, then Apple can confiscate it. We already have it flagged, so if someone takes it in to try using it (now that the number is off for certain - once we called AT&T with the police report number, they jumped to action), it will be confiscated and returned to us.

It's the meantime, not knowing what someone may be doing with what pictures of my baby and not knowing which pictures are being sent and for what purpose. And yes, I'm angry that whoever has my phone has made no attempt to find the owners and have ignored our attempts to contact the through my phone and are using it for their own personal use.

In the time since I initially posted, I called one of the numbers that outgoing calls have been placed to and that has placed an incoming call, and the girl who answered admitted she knows who has the phone, but wouldn't say anything else. I think it shook her up when I told her I have a police report filed, that it's considered stolen (the police department also considers it stolen since there's been no attempt to find us, the person ignoring us, and it being used personally by someone else), and she said she'll take it to the police department where she lives (3 hours away), but we'll see if she does.

I just want my phone back, and I want my pictures of my baby out of the hands of whoever's been sending pictures from my phone.
 
The penal code is open in terms of what it can consider "child porn" and obscene. Depending on the overall circumstance, yes you or he could be charged with child porn.

The entirety of the circumstance comes into play with the "average reasonable person" test applied in terms of the manner it is being used, disseminated, etc.

So if you, as most of us do have an innocent naked picture of your infant, that is not necessarily "child porn". It is a cute picture we usually have of our kids and a reasonable person would not consider it child porn. But if you were disseminating that exact same innocent picture to a internet pedophile group, yes it could be child porn.

Simply stealing your photos does not make him a child pornographer... it makes him a thief. If he starts selling/distributing/exhibiting "naked kiddie pics" of your kid with the intent to arouse, that WOULD make him a child pornographer.
 

Banned_Princess

Senior Member
Iphones can easily be jail broken, to use with any service. Apple is not necessary ... ( At &T?)



Sorry, but basically, you are not getting the phone back.


Maybe the police can find out who is using it, if you tell them about it. So do that.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
unless those are the only pics on the phone, you have no way of knowing if they are sending pics of your child or not. For all you know, they were dumb enough to take pics of themselves and send those around. (always is nice when the thief leaves a pic of themselves for evidence).




and nobody is disputing the phone is now considered stolen. My point was:

you apparently don't understand that the people stealing them don't care that it is illegal. They steal them so they can use them. They know it is against the law, they just don't care.

so, all you can do now is wait to see if it shows up.
 

stoleniphone

Junior Member
It's what would be considered "one of those pictures all parents have." I only shared them with her daddy so he could see her learning she has feet and trying to taste her toes. Not even her grandma has seen them. Just me and her daddy. And I certainly wouldn't share them with friends or family on Facebook, and not a chance in hell I'd give or share them with anyone who might use them to sickening purposes, the type of people who should rot in hell. (I was molested as a child by a babysitter, and am particularly sensitive to these things.)

I've spoken, at this point, with the person who has it, and I think she's scared since I told her we have a police report filed on it for it being stolen, and that our phone records show calls placed to her number and coming in from her number, connecting her to stolen property. My phone was last in my baby's diaper bag during a busy day at the zoo. It was stolen, and she claims now she'll take it to the police department nearest her, but we'll see. If she doesn't, I'm going to do everything in my power to find her and get my damned phone back. Theft is wrong, and she has the power to return stolen property in her possession to its owner.
 

stoleniphone

Junior Member
you apparently don't understand that the people stealing them don't care that it is illegal. They steal them so they can use them. They know it is against the law, they just don't care.
It is so supremely stupid to use a stolen phone to make and receive personal calls. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that the owner of the phone can see this information and possibly find who has a stolen phone and report the thief to the cops. Which I have every intention of doing if she doesn't follow through and return the phone tonight.

If someone took pics of themselves and deleted them, well we know how to run recovery and get this stuff back. If she doesn't turn in the phone tonight, we'll turn those pictures over to the cops when/if we get it back.

This phone is also a business phone. It has my business contacts in it, and one of those numbers was put in after my last back-up. Thank goodness I got a back-up e-mail for that client, so I was able to contact her that way, but it's set one of my orders behind by not being able to call directly.

I need to find out if there's a way to password-protect a phone, and will certainly be putting MobileMe either on this phone, if I get it back, or a new one. I wish it was on this one. We'd show up on the doorstep of the location of it, police report in hand, and demand it back.
 

stoleniphone

Junior Member
really? Tell me how and can I use it on Sprint?
Instructions are all over the internet on how to jailbreak it. When you jailbreak it, one of the things you can do is have the apple that shows on startup look like a pineapple with a bite out of it, commonly called the "pwnapple" (internet meme mashup own "pwn", which is like, "Dude, you owned that punk!", kind of like sticking it to someone, and apple). Unfortunately jb's phones run a bit slower, so I restored mine after about two days.

Once you jb it, you can activate it like any other phone, activate a sim card wit a data plan with Sprint, and put it in the iPhone. Instructions on how to do that are also online. This is pretty common nowadays.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
=stoleniphone;2558621]It is so supremely stupid to use a stolen phone to make and receive personal calls. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that the owner of the phone can see this information and possibly find who has a stolen phone and report the thief to the cops. Which I have every intention of doing if she doesn't follow through and return the phone tonight.
not all criminals are like the wall street group.

Not trying to me mean here but you need to relax a bit. Granted, it is no fun but you are getting way too worked up over this situation. Do what you can and then let it go.

this is one of those times where this is good advice, especially the first stanza:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebu
 

TheGeekess

Keeper of the Kraken
It is so supremely stupid to use a stolen phone to make and receive personal calls. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that the owner of the phone can see this information and possibly find who has a stolen phone and report the thief to the cops. Which I have every intention of doing if she doesn't follow through and return the phone tonight.

If someone took pics of themselves and deleted them, well we know how to run recovery and get this stuff back. If she doesn't turn in the phone tonight, we'll turn those pictures over to the cops when/if we get it back.

This phone is also a business phone. It has my business contacts in it, and one of those numbers was put in after my last back-up. Thank goodness I got a back-up e-mail for that client, so I was able to contact her that way, but it's set one of my orders behind by not being able to call directly.

I need to find out if there's a way to password-protect a phone, and will certainly be putting MobileMe either on this phone, if I get it back, or a new one. I wish it was on this one. We'd show up on the doorstep of the location of it, police report in hand, and demand it back.
And you think that would get your phone back? :eek::rolleyes:

You'd end up another statistic. :cool:
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top