iPhone stolen in Las Vegas travels to China after victim accidentally helps thieves unlock it

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A Reddit user’s story about his stolen iPhone has caught widespread attention after the device took an unexpected journey from Las Vegas all the way to China. What began as a case of simple theft at a music festival turned into a lesson in how easily scammers can outsmart even the most careful users.

He shared that his phone was stolen from his back pocket while he was near a crowded mosh pit at a Las Vegas festival late at night. He had a strange feeling someone was watching him but brushed it off. Minutes later, the phone was gone. Because it had been on airplane mode, he could not track it through Apple’s Find My feature. Hoping to recover it, he put the phone in Lost Mode but avoided erasing it right away since he had not backed up his data for months.

The next morning, he was shocked to see the phone’s location pop up in Arizona. Over the following days, it appeared to move through several states including New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida before eventually showing up in China. Then came a text message that looked like it was from Apple, asking him to remove the phone from his Find My account. Thinking it was a step toward recovering the device, he complied.

That single action changed everything. By removing the phone from his iCloud list, he unknowingly disabled Apple’s Activation Lock — a key security feature that prevents stolen iPhones from being reused. Once the device was unlinked, the thieves could easily reset and resell it.

He later realized the message was fake. It was part of a sophisticated phishing scam often used by thieves to trick victims into unlocking their own devices. He immediately changed all his passwords, reported the theft to Verizon, and got a replacement phone, but the old one was gone for good.

The post has since gone viral, with many users thanking him for sharing his experience. The story serves as a reminder for iPhone owners never to remove a lost device from their iCloud account, no matter what messages or emails they receive. In this case, one moment of misplaced trust gave the thieves exactly what they needed.