Alisa, who told us last week that Apple wouldn’t help her get back her stolen iPhone, has written to us today with an update.

This whole situation has turned out to be a happy story, e-mailing Steve Jobs actually turned out pretty well. I e-mailed him the same day I emailed you, which was the 30th of December, on the 2nd of January I got a phone call from the executive office of Apple.

I was then told that they do have a procedure for these types of situations, and that I need to provide them with a police report number. Once they have a police report number there is someone at Apple that deals only with law enforcement and will be in touch with them. At this point all this has happened and there is an investigation under way.

I’m glad that I was wrong. Apple does have a policy regarding these types of situations and they do care. It’s just frustrating that I have to reach out to the CEO of this huge multi-billion dollar company to fix what seemed like a no-brainer to me (even though it’s not a huge deal to email him). It would have definitely reduced a lot of stress if the Apple rep I spoke to would have told either me or the NYPD that she needed a police report number and it wasn’t enough to just hear from the police.

Now the rest of us know: if your iPhone is stolen, first be sure to file a police report, and then be sure to get a police report number that you can provide to Apple.

Also, several people have suggested that if you own an iPhone, you should subscribe to Apple’s $99/year MobileMe service. I don’t think the service is useful and have been unwilling to promote it, but it’s true that it’s currently the only way you can track, lock, and remotely wipe your iPhone* should you lose it. If you’re concerned about sensitive data on your phone or you tend to misplace it frequently, it may be worth the $100 fee to you.

* Unless it’s jailbroken.

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