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]

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