"iGotYa: An iPhone app to track down mobile thieves"

iGotYa requires people to "jailbreak" their iPhones, which means they are released from Apple's strict download restrictions.

Beijing: A Chinese woman, who lost her iPhone in a taxi in Beijing, was surprised when a photograph of the taxi driver popped up on her email, thanks to the new App which takes snaps of people who meddle with the phone to unlock it.

Xie Danhong, 33 dropped her phone in the taxi while on a business trip here last week and lost hope to track it.She was distressed because the phone has photographs and video clips of her nine-month-old baby.

Within six hours after she lost the phone Xie was surprised to receive a mail from her Iphone showing the picture of the taxi driver, who tried to meddle with it.

The facility was provided by the App called iGotYa, which snaps anyone who tries to unlock the phone using the incorrect password and then automatically emails it to the rightful owner of the phone.

“I immediately recognised the guy in the picture as he was the taxi driver,” Xie who works in Guangzhou told China Daily.

She immediately put the picture on her microblog and flashed it around and also reported the case to police. She is yet to track the driver but is hopeful of getting the photos of her child.

“If the thief wants the phone he can have it but the contacts and pictures are important to me, I have no back up,” she said.

The iGotYa requires people to “jailbreak” their iPhones, which means they are released from Apple’s strict download restrictions.

The daily has reported about some successful cases in which people actually got back their phones thanks to the App.

Some have also warned iPhone users not make allegations as soon as they receive the pictures of someone holding their phone as it could lead to defamation cases.