One of the photos taken from Allan Engstrom's stolen iPad (Engstrom/Facebook)Losing your iPad would be a source of anger and resentment for most people. But one Arkansas man describes his own stolen device as a “continuing fountain of entertainment,” thanks to the often bizarre pictures taken with the iPad that are posted to his iCloud photostream.
"It's been a continuing fountain of entertainment for me,” Allen Engstram told KTHV. “It's just like I'll wake up one day and they'll be new pictures there and I'm like oh my gosh, she has no idea."
Engstram says he lost the iPad on a flight from Phoenix to Denver. He assumed that was the end of the story until one day his son asked Engstram’s wife about a strange photo that appeared in the family’s photo stream.
"He said mommy, who's this? And of course she said, I have no idea who that is. It showed up on my phone too," Engstram said. "After a while we figured out what was going on. That's the person that has my iPad."
And while he doesn’t know if he’ll ever actually get the iPad back, Engstram is making sure to have a little fun in the meantime: He’s been posting a series of the photos to his social media accounts, including Twitter and Facebook.
In the caption for the photo included in this article, Engstrom writes: “Hey cool! This is an actual pic of the wonderful person who stole my iPad. Apparently the pics she is taking of herself are backing up and appearing on my phone. No I'm not kidding, this is really happening.”
"I have no problem with putting it on Facebook, because hey, it's fun for me and it's apparently fun for a lot of other people,” he told KTHV. “And there's always the chance that someone will say hey, I know who that is. And I want my iPad back."
Thanks to the response from social media users, Engstram has begun to piece together some details about the alleged iPad thief. For example, she apparently lives in Phoenix and Engstram now knows her Instagram user name.
Plus, he’s nearly certain the woman knows she’s holding onto stolen property, since Engstram’s name and contact information are etched onto the back of the iPad.
"It's pretty crazy how quickly it's spread when it goes viral. I've never had anything like that happen before," he said.
Of course, Engstrom would probably have his iPad back by now, or, at least know it's exactly location. But, he says he turned off the device's location enabling functionality before it was stolen.