F5F Stay Refreshed Power Users Networks Detect a phone's presence through various methods such as signal detection, camera recognition, or Bluetooth scanning.

Detect a phone's presence through various methods such as signal detection, camera recognition, or Bluetooth scanning.

Detect a phone's presence through various methods such as signal detection, camera recognition, or Bluetooth scanning.

1
1zambos
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188
10-27-2023, 01:41 AM
#1
Hey guys, this is actually quite a serious question...and hardly a simple one. So basically, my friend had his apartment broken into the other day. The only thing we're sure of is that the thief had a phone. There are no leads and I was wondering if anyone happens to know of a way to find out information about his phone that was inside the apartment? Maybe the router saves some sort of information about the devices it sees in the vicinity? Maybe other devices in the house, like an iPad for example, have "seen" the phone or something like that and saved the data? As you can tell im not an expert and am just throwing possible directions. I know computer science but not communication.
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1
1zambos
10-27-2023, 01:41 AM #1

Hey guys, this is actually quite a serious question...and hardly a simple one. So basically, my friend had his apartment broken into the other day. The only thing we're sure of is that the thief had a phone. There are no leads and I was wondering if anyone happens to know of a way to find out information about his phone that was inside the apartment? Maybe the router saves some sort of information about the devices it sees in the vicinity? Maybe other devices in the house, like an iPad for example, have "seen" the phone or something like that and saved the data? As you can tell im not an expert and am just throwing possible directions. I know computer science but not communication.

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KoolaidMan_154
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56
10-31-2023, 04:02 PM
#2
The router wouldn't detect it unless he joined the WiFi network, which is odd for someone trying to move quickly without being noticed. Another way the thief might have done it would be keeping Bluetooth active so a friend’s device could log nearby devices. Even then, using the MAC address of the thief’s phone doesn’t seem very helpful.
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KoolaidMan_154
10-31-2023, 04:02 PM #2

The router wouldn't detect it unless he joined the WiFi network, which is odd for someone trying to move quickly without being noticed. Another way the thief might have done it would be keeping Bluetooth active so a friend’s device could log nearby devices. Even then, using the MAC address of the thief’s phone doesn’t seem very helpful.

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lolking6546
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4
10-31-2023, 08:35 PM
#3
Once the person has left there's nothing you can do sadly. As stated above if they had been on your wifi network you may have been able to get something. The most you would've figured out is the brand of the phone and whatever they named the phone (iDevices will often use your name like Sam's iPhone). Other than that you won't get any definitive information about who owns the phone. Only cellphone towers will have such information - law enforcement would have to issue a subpeana, take the data for the date/time, compare it to other weeks of the same day and time, and look at unique phones. Lot of work to only get circumstantial evidence. But at least this should be a good motivator to get apartment insurance - I think I paid $10/m for mine in a high crime area located in a city.
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lolking6546
10-31-2023, 08:35 PM #3

Once the person has left there's nothing you can do sadly. As stated above if they had been on your wifi network you may have been able to get something. The most you would've figured out is the brand of the phone and whatever they named the phone (iDevices will often use your name like Sam's iPhone). Other than that you won't get any definitive information about who owns the phone. Only cellphone towers will have such information - law enforcement would have to issue a subpeana, take the data for the date/time, compare it to other weeks of the same day and time, and look at unique phones. Lot of work to only get circumstantial evidence. But at least this should be a good motivator to get apartment insurance - I think I paid $10/m for mine in a high crime area located in a city.

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