[jcampbell1]

This is really needed. In New York, there is a problem of punk kids snatching iPhones and running. It is hard for the police to do anything about it, and these kids are fencing the phones for about $150, and they are likely shipped to out of the country where carrier blocks don't work.

For whatever reason, I have heard of a bunch of people that get their iPhones snatched, but never android phones.

The market for bad ESN phones is way too strong. A simple ebay search shows that bad a ESN iPhone 5 still fetches $250. Apple needs to drive down the value of bad ESN phones to near zero for the safety of their own customers.

[eponeponepon]

How quickly do these 'punk kids' sell the phones on, though? And could a system to trigger the killswitch be responsive enough to trigger it before the phone's been sold? And if it were, could it ever hope to be sure of the facts in time to catch bad requests?

[jcampbell1]

I am sure they power off the phones almost immediately. I actually don't think a legislative solution is the right process. I think Apple should address the problem for the benefit of their own customers. Maybe they need to investigate this and work with Interpol.