iPhone and iPad Lost in the Trash, Found With MobileMe

June 23, 2010— -- When Eric Boehs saw the garbage truck coming he panicked. Desperate to get the trash carted away, he ran to get the bags, setting down his own bag, his iPhone and iPad.

What happened next has disappeared into an anguished blur of guilt and confusion. All Eric knew was that when the mists of his memory cleared, there were two things missing: The iPhone and the iPad.

Being a switched-on guy, Eric fired up his Mac and used MobileMe's Find My iPhone service to pinpoint his iPhone on Google Maps. His phone and the garbage truck were parked outside Hooters. The crew, presumably, were enjoying "lunch."

After 45 minutes, the phone still hadn't moved, so Eric and his friend Billy jumped in his car and started to follow the iPhone using Billy's iPad, with videographer Kyle Roberts following along.

Meanwhile, the trash crew had finished lunch and were on the move. Billy and Eric were trying to close the gap but they were up against the clock.

Every time Billy pinged the iPhone to get its location, the battery would be drained a little more. Soon, the guys caught a break, and the truck stopped again, maybe for another snack, or maybe the crew was done for the day. It was just three streets away.

Eric was pessimistic. "I think the iPad's gonna be cracked in half," he said. Billy thought it would be covered in grease.

Ground zero. The guys arrived at the iPhone's reported location, but there was no trash truck. Eric used MobileMe to tell his iPhone to beep. This can be done from both the MobileMe website, or the new Find My iPhone app from Apple.

The advantage of the web version is that you can stay signed in if you need to switch away from the page. Eric and Billy were using the web.

They were in a motel parking lot. The dumpster there came up empty, so they set the beep again and stared listening at doors. Nothing. They spoke to the neighbors.

One of them wasn't too happy about them filming the whole operation. "Dude, surely you're not filming right now," he said to Kyle, "I'm wanted by the law." Kyle blurred his face from the finished film.