Man shares story of how Google Maps helped him trace stolen mobile phone

A man shared a detailed post on X in which he shared how he recovered a stolen phone from a thief with the help of Google Maps. Raj Bhagat Palanichamy, a popular mapper and earth observation specialist in Tamil Nadu shared a long thread on X in which he explained what all happened as they were struggling to find the phone.

Raj Bhagat said that his father had boarded a sleeper class coach on the Nagercoil-Kacheguda Express at Nagercoil to travel to Tiruchi past midnight. A thief had boarded the train and stolen his father’s bag, which had “CITU” written on it, and his mobile phone. The thief then alighted the train in Tirunelveli Junction.

After this, around 3.51 am, his father had called from a friend’s phone to inform him that his bag and phone were stolen. Raj further said, “Luckily, among immediate family members we have location sharing ‘on’ which meant I could track the location of the mobile. When I checked it, I realized that the mobile was moving along the track near Melapalayam in Tirunelveli so I deduced that the thief was returning back to Nagercoil in another train,”

He further narrated, "The thief came to the station in Kanniyakumari Express which was heavily crowded and the only indications I had was my dad’s phone and his black bag. In the crowd, we lost him but I still was able to track him. Based on his movements, I found that he exited through the main gate and took a local bus which connects Nagercoil railway station with Anna bus stand and Vadasery Christopher bus stand. So we started our chase in bike."

Raj then said that at the Anna bus stand, Google Maps showed a location which was accurate to 2 metres! Spotting the bag, they confronted the thief and recovered the stolen bag and phone. The local police took him into custody.

Raj concluded by saying, "I was lucky that the thief didn’t turn off the phone through the entire thing, I was lucky that he had to pass through Nagercoil which was my backyard, & I was lucky that I knew something about maps & how to navigate. Many of you might not like sharing location, understandable but today it helped me."

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