[joecool1029]

> I wonder… if people whose phones get stolen start tracking the locations they see it travel to using Find My, and a site were available to report these to, could enough evidence be collected to motivate a police/FBI visit to the location of fences in the US who are shipping these to China?

Probably not. Below their pay grade to stop petty crime. There's also the chain of custody on evidence that becomes questionable for the prosecution. They need to collect it using their own methods and reality is they have easier or larger crime to go after.

My observation on this is that it needs to be more of an 'institutional' level of crime to get them motivated if it doesn't happen in their own investigation. Ultimately this is 'helpful' crime for Apple's bottom line, unlike parts smuggled in to legitimately repair devices.

Other example of what I mean: I've witnessed a craigslist deal go south on a purchased motorcycle when the seller never titled it from previous owner. Cops were called, and told the two parties to stop arguing and file a claim in court else disorderly persons charges would be brought. (thankfully the seller was able to contact the former owner, and drive with the purchaser to have the title transferred properly) If however this was a situation like a bank calling about forged checks, the police would move to arrest and prosecute the forger immediately. There wouldn't be this onus on the bank's part to file a civil claim.

[Zagorath]

The thing is, it's not petty crime in the situation they described. If they're stealing from (or knowingly buying the stolen property of) a large number of people, that's now a significant illegal operation.

Yes it might not be trivial to prosecute, but we're not actually talking about petty theft done by random individuals where the effort isn't worth it. We're talking about major rings of thieves stealing millions of dollars worth of devices per year.

[Zak]

While I'm sure there are many instances of the police taking crimes against institutions more seriously than crimes against individuals, your motorcycle example isn't a good one.

The paperwork mixup described in this comment doesn't sound like an attempt at fraud or theft because no evidence of intent to deceive someone or take property from its rightful owner is described. Indeed, when the previous owner of the motorcycle was contacted, they corrected the paperwork.