The neat thing about high-falutin' technology these days is that if you lose it, many times you can use software to track it. Which is all well and good, except when that's all you can do — watch as it travels around without you. Such was the case for a woman who left her iPad on a plane seat. 
 
 Sally thought she left her iPad on the seat next to her on an American Airlines flight that ended in New York City, reports The Post-Standard. After she called Lost and Found and left messages, she logged on to MobileMe, which lets you track your electronics via GPS. So she did — and saw it was at an address in Long Island, N.Y. 
 
 Sally then contacted American Airlines and police at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to tell them her iPad was taken and she knew exactly where it was. She kept watching it, waiting for the police to act. And they didn't. 
 
 "I was frustrated after days of this. So I sent a message to the iPad," she said. And then it started traveling around! 
 
 It went from JFK Airport to L.A. back to JFK, to San Francisco and then JFK again. She had a sneaking suspicion it was an airline employee, what with all that traveling. 
 
 Hootnick then used another application to make the iPad beep every two minutes along with the messages saying she knew where it was and that she'd called the cops, as well as contacting American Airlines again. 
 
 They took a month to respond, after she emailed again and said she was going to call a consumer protection agency. Sally then spoke twice to a police detective. She can't track the iPad now, because she's replaced it, and turned off her wireless service to the old iPad. 
 
 American Airlines isn't commenting on the ongoing investigation, and officials with the Port Authority have not returned calls from The Post-Standard. 
 
 Manlius woman tracks her stolen iPad online, but authorities fail to act [The Post-Standard] 
 
 From ConsumerReports.org: ||||| Manlius, NY - Sally Hootnick followed her missing iPad as it moved from New York City to California and back. 
 
 She told the suspected thief: I know where you live and I’ve called the police. She also ordered the tablet-sized computer to beep every two minutes. 
 
 She did all that without leaving her Manlius home. 
 
 Armed with a computer application called MobileMe, Hootnick pursued the iPad she believed was stolen after she left it on an American Airlines plane in New York City. 
 
 “I just wanted to harass who ever took it,” Hootnick said. “I didn’t want him to enjoy it if he was using it.” 
 
 Hootnick’s story began when she took her iPad on a family vacation to the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean. The family returned to the United States on April 1, landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. 
 
 Hootnick remembers using the iPad on the flight, and believes she may have set it down on the seat while gathering her things from the overhead compartment after the plane landed. 
 
 In a taxi on the way to a hotel, Hootnick realized the device was missing. That night, she reported the iPad missing in a message left on the answering machine at the airline’s lost and found department. She left another message in the morning. 
 
 Then Hootnick remembered she had MobileMe, a computer application that uses global positioning satellites to track electronic devices like iPads. 
 
 Using another computer, she found the iPad. It wasn’t at the airport. It was in a house on Long Island, and by clicking on the address Hootnick could see the two-story house with the curving driveway on Google Earth. 
 
 “Suddenly, I knew it wasn’t going to be in lost and found,” she said. 
 
 Hootnick contacted American Airlines and police at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. ’’My iPad was taken and I know where it is,” she told them. 
 
 She continued to watch her iPad remotely while waiting for the police to act. 
 
 “I was frustrated after days of this. So I sent a message to the iPad,” Hootnick said. 
 
 She typed in the Long Island address and said, “I know where you are and I called the police.” 
 
 Hootnick said she hoped the message would intimidate the person to put the device in the airline’s lost and found. 
 
 “The next day my iPad started traveling. I was watching it everyday, I was becoming a little obsessive,” Hootnick said. 
 
 Sitting at home at another computer, Hootnick watched remotely as her iPad traveled to the JFK parking lot. It sat there for two days. Then she watched it travel to the Los Angeles airport and back to JFK, to the San Francisco airport and back to JFK. 
 
 With the device traveling that often, Hootnick suspected the iPad was being used by an airline employee. 
 
 Using another application, she sent the computer a command to make an annoying “beeeep” every two minutes and send messages saying she knew where the person lived and had called authorities. 
 
 She traded emails with the airline notifying the company that she believed an employee had her iPad. A month later when no one acted, Hootnick emailed the airline that she was going to contact a consumer protection agency. 
 
 The next day, a person from American Airlines corporate security called, asking for information. She had two more conversations with a police detective asked by American Airlines to look into the case. 
 
 American Airlines won’t comment on Hootnick’s case because it’s the subject of an ongoing investigation, said Ed Martelle, speaking for the airline. 
 
 The company is not responsible for lost or stolen items, but does not condone theft, he said. 
 
 The case now resides with the Port Authority, whose officials have not returned several calls from The Post-Standard. 
 
 
 
 As for the iPad, Hootnick no longer knows where it is. When she replaced the device she turned off the wireless service to the old iPad, and that means she can no longer track it. 
 
 The iPad is probably useless to the person who has it, Hootnick said. If anyone tries to buy wireless service for the device the serial number will pop up as it being reported stolen, Hootnick said. 
 
 “It’s probably in the river,” she said. 
 

– There's an app for pretty much everything—except cutting through bureaucracy. A woman who mistakenly left her iPad on a plane was able to track the whereabouts of the device, but couldn't convince authorities to follow up on it, reports the Syracuse Post-Standard, via the Consumerist. The woman was fairly certain she left the iPad on a plane after deboarding in New York City, and after leaving messages with American Airlines, she used the GPS function of MobileMe to find that the iPad was in a house on Long Island. She contacted airline and law-enforcement authorities with the exact location, but no action was taken. She suspects an airline employee pocketed the iPad because it then made several trips back and forth between JFK airport and California. She can't trace it anymore because she replaced the iPad and shut off wireless service to the old one. At one point, she used an app to make it beep every two minutes. “I just wanted to harass who ever took it,” she said. “I didn’t want him to enjoy it if he was using it.”