Thief tells sob story to borrow woman's iPhone

Police are looking for a well-dressed thief who duped a 34-year-old Boca Raton woman with a baby stroller into handing over her cheap iphone 4 cases at the Town Center mall.Sandra Sanges exited the Glades Road shopping center at about 1:25 p.m. on Friday, according to a Boca Raton police incident report.

Around the same time, a white man in his 20s with short, spiky brown hair slipped out of a silver car and held up a cracked cell phone, said the victim's husband, Chris Sanges, 37. The man asked to borrow the victim's iPhone, police said, to call his mom. She handed it over and he jumped back into the driver's seat and sped off.

"I'm kind of disgusted by it," said Chris Sanges, who suspects his wife was targeted because she had a stroller and couldn't run after him.Boca Raton police spokesman Mark Economou said the incident is under investigation. He said the case is a reminder that iPhone thefts are an ongoing problem across the U.S. and that there are a few things that iPhone users can do to protect themselves.dfsWF2FR

Number one, he said, is to enable the Passcode Lock function, a tool that prevents unauthorized users from accessing a phone. It's important because it stops thieves from disabling the phone's GPS capability, and with it, the free-to-install Find My iPhone app, which works when set up with a user's iCloud account, Economou said.

The app is frequently used by law enforcement — and sometimes victims — to locate stolen cheap iphone 4s cases. In this case, Sanges said, it looks like the thief shut down the GPS function right away.Economou also said iPhone users should never talk on their phone while walking to and from their car."At that point you're very distracted about your surroundings," Economou said. "Walking and talking, it's not a good idea."

T-Mobile said the full price for the apple accessories, now at $629.99, is still lower than purchasing an unlocked iPhone 5, which typically costs $650.

T-Mobile also said users can take advantage of another promotion it has going on that lets them trade in an old iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 to bring the down payment cost of a new iPhone 5 to $0. That promotion lasts until June 16, which is Father's Day.

The T-Mobile iPhone 5's new price now brings it in line with that of the iphone 4s headphones, which also has a down payment of $149.99. Meanwhile, the HTC One, another top-of-the-line smartphone that came out in April, is still available with a down payment of $99.99.