iPhone Stolen in Subway Traced by Police to Thief First the subway rider fell asleep, and a thief took his iPhone. Then the thief fell asleep, and soon he was under arrest, the police said. It happened early Tuesday morning, when a 22-year-old man boarded the downtown No. 1 train at 116th Street and nodded off, only to awaken seven stops later with his earbuds dangling from his ears and his iPhone missing from his pocket. He had been listening to "The Naming of Things," a long, slowly unwinding number by the indie folk-rocker Andrew Bird, the police said. Rattled, the victim, whose name was not released, left the subway and took a taxi to his home in Greenwich Village, where he used his iPad to locate the phone before going to the police around 5:30 in the morning. At the Sixth Precinct station house on West 10th Street, the desk officer on duty, Sgt. Matthew Delaney, used the "Find My iPhone" application on his own iPad to locate the device as well, the police said. Meanwhile, the thief, who the police identified as Joseph Outley, had changed the name on the phone's registration to his own, Sergeant Delaney said. Seeing that Mr. Outley's name was on the device, the sergeant pulled up his arrest record and his photo. He deputized three fellow officers, who drove the victim uptown to find the stolen phone. Apparently thinking himself safe, Mr. Outley, 18, had fallen asleep in the hallway of an apartment building at East 107th street and Madison Avenue, the sergeant said. When the officers roused him, the sergeant said, Mr. Outley took the iPhone from his pocket and calmly asked, "Am I going to get locked up for this?" Mr. Outley will be charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and trespassing, the police said. Though thefts of smartphones have been skyrocketing, major wireless service providers announced a measure on Tuesday that might make them less attractive to thieves. The carriers said they would soon start deactivating cellphones that are reported stolen, reducing their resale value more or less entirely. "What we're announcing here today will make a stolen cellphone about as worthless as an empty wallet," Senator Charles E. Schumer told The Associated Press.