How Jill Used Life360 to Catch a Thief

Our users at Life360 often share stories of how they’re using the app – whether it’s about how they are staying connected with their families or have peace of mind from monitoring new teenage drivers. The stories of gratitude we receive on a daily basis keeps us working hard to constantly improve our app. We recently connected with one of our users, Jill, who offered to share her story about how Life360 helped locate her daughter’s stolen mobile phone.

Knowing the whereabouts of your children is a top priority for every parent. In fact, 92% of adults are concerned with knowing where their kids are, and with a new school year comes new anxieties over new routines and new environments.

Jill downloaded Life360 to stay on top of her three teenage daughters coming to and from school and during their early morning extracurricular activities. Even her daughters found it useful to see when their mom was on her way to pick them up. Jill and her family typically use Life360 to locate one another, but they also found it surprisingly helpful in locating something else – her daughter’s stolen mobile phone.

While on a trip in Minneapolis, Jill and her daughters spent the day visiting the local college and other points of interest when her daughter noticed she no longer had her cell phone with her. After looking through all their bags, her youngest daughter remembered that Life360 could locate her sister’s phone.

“When we opened the app, we saw my daughter’s cell phone on the map at the college we had visited earlier that day,” said Jill. “As we made our way back to spot we left it, we saw that the pin began moving away from its original location and it was clear that someone had taken her phone.”

After calling the local police, they arrived to meet Jill and her daughters. The police let them know the likelihood of retrieving a stolen phone was slim, but had Jill show them her daughter’s phone location on the Life360 app. Jill then gave the police her own cell phone to continue to use the app as they searched for the thief.

“We could see the police pursuing the thief in real time through the Life360 map! It was an exciting and also nerve-racking experience to watch a police chase on our family sharing app.”

When the phone was finally returned to her daughter, the officer told Jill that in his 20 years on the job, he’s never seen a case resolved so easily.

“When we showed the officer how we were locating my daughter’s phone through Life360, he had never heard of the app. But by the time he returned the phone to me, he showed me several new features that he found that I didn’t even know about such as viewing member driving history. We both taught each other something new that day,” said Jill.
The officers told Jill it was her lucky day, but she credits her luck to Life360 and has become more confident in the accuracy of the app’s location feature.

We’re thankful we could help Jill retrieve her daughter’s possessions while keeping her whole family safe. Thanks for letting us share your story!