Apple's Emergency SOS feature foils attempted sexual assault
An iPhone owner this week credited Apple's Emergency SOS feature with thwarting a sexual assault attempt in Virginia Beach, Va., an attack that could have turned deadly had police not received the automated alert.
The unnamed woman described her ordeal to CBS affiliate WTKR on Monday.
During the early hours of Sunday a lone stranger approached asking for help in finding his own iPhone, according to the report. The woman, not suspecting danger, agreed to play good Samaritan and was ultimately led to the boardwalk.
"I wasn't suspecting he was bad. He was a very normal, nice looking guy," she said. "I was like, 'Where are your friends? Why are you alone?' He was like, I'm in the military. I'm not from here,' and my brother is in the military -- I felt bad for him."
Luring the victim to a secluded area, the unidentified man said he believed the phone was lost in sand. The situation turned sour when the woman attempted to locate the supposedly missing phone with Apple's "Find My" app, an effort that bore no fruit. She became suspicious when the man was unable to navigate Apple's iOS user interface, suggesting he did not, in fact, own an iPhone and had manufactured the lost phone scenario.
"I get my phone back and I turn around and I try to run away and he just comes up from behind me, tackles me, grabs my face, is covering my mouth," the woman said. "I'm trying to scream for help, [he] tackles me to the ground -- is like shoving my face to the ground -- and now, because I've been screaming, he's holding my mouth even tighter trying to muffle any noise I'm making."
Luckily, Emergency SOS was enabled on the woman's iPhone, allowing her to automatically dial 911 without unlocking the device. In this case, a long press of both the power button and volume down button triggered the feature. Emergency SOS can also be invoked by pressing on the power button five times in rapid succession.
Police were directed to her location by a dispatcher who heard her pleas for help.
"They were originally going to look in the hotels and dispatch updated them that I was talking about the water -- I'm begging him not to drown, I don't want to drown -- so they knew to come look in the sand," she said.
The attacker fled on foot when police arrived on scene, but was quickly tracked down and apprehended.
"I'm so thankful for those police officers. I know they have a thankless job, and I just can't thank them enough," the woman said.
Apple's Emergency SOS feature debuted on watchOS in 2016 and made its way to iPhone in 2017. With iOS 11, Apple added the ability to alert designated emergency contacts with am automated text message that incorporates current location information.
The unnamed woman described her ordeal to CBS affiliate WTKR on Monday.
During the early hours of Sunday a lone stranger approached asking for help in finding his own iPhone, according to the report. The woman, not suspecting danger, agreed to play good Samaritan and was ultimately led to the boardwalk.
"I wasn't suspecting he was bad. He was a very normal, nice looking guy," she said. "I was like, 'Where are your friends? Why are you alone?' He was like, I'm in the military. I'm not from here,' and my brother is in the military -- I felt bad for him."
Luring the victim to a secluded area, the unidentified man said he believed the phone was lost in sand. The situation turned sour when the woman attempted to locate the supposedly missing phone with Apple's "Find My" app, an effort that bore no fruit. She became suspicious when the man was unable to navigate Apple's iOS user interface, suggesting he did not, in fact, own an iPhone and had manufactured the lost phone scenario.
"I get my phone back and I turn around and I try to run away and he just comes up from behind me, tackles me, grabs my face, is covering my mouth," the woman said. "I'm trying to scream for help, [he] tackles me to the ground -- is like shoving my face to the ground -- and now, because I've been screaming, he's holding my mouth even tighter trying to muffle any noise I'm making."
Luckily, Emergency SOS was enabled on the woman's iPhone, allowing her to automatically dial 911 without unlocking the device. In this case, a long press of both the power button and volume down button triggered the feature. Emergency SOS can also be invoked by pressing on the power button five times in rapid succession.
Police were directed to her location by a dispatcher who heard her pleas for help.
"They were originally going to look in the hotels and dispatch updated them that I was talking about the water -- I'm begging him not to drown, I don't want to drown -- so they knew to come look in the sand," she said.
The attacker fled on foot when police arrived on scene, but was quickly tracked down and apprehended.
"I'm so thankful for those police officers. I know they have a thankless job, and I just can't thank them enough," the woman said.
Apple's Emergency SOS feature debuted on watchOS in 2016 and made its way to iPhone in 2017. With iOS 11, Apple added the ability to alert designated emergency contacts with am automated text message that incorporates current location information.
Comments
Hope the dude get serious jail time. That includes being passed around by bubba and the gang.
Apple should add current location into this feature so the police will know where to look. Better yet the location should be updated automatically.
Do droid devices have anything similar? A girlfriend of mine has been considering driving across country to bring her car here and I’m uncomfortable with her being by herself on that trip. (Going to go look now)
One advantage of Apple products is that they all have it, the Apple Watch does too. So many examples of how this has saved lives, from car crashes to abductions.
If you don’t list an emergency contact, does it still call emergency services?
Do you need to enable the Auto Call feature for it to work at all, or is that a variation on some default behavior?
I’m hesitant to do the rapid button press thing to test it. I see there’s a countdown setting, but, still, I don’t know what to expect; accidentally calling 911 is ... problematic.
On newer devices, you activate it by pressing the right button and one of the volume buttons. Hold them and a slider will appear, and then slide to call.
If you have the Call with Side Button enabled, you can get to the slider screen by only pressing the right side button 5 times quickly.
If you have Auto Call enabled, then continuing to hold the right button/volume button will initiate the call without needing to use the slider. Instead you'll get a countdown with a tone. You can cancel if need be.
I believe it's best to have both features enabled which would allow you to activate with one hand, and not need to see the screen to use the slider.
Additionally, you can add an emergency contact who will get a text message after 911 has been called, and they'll get your location and updates if your location changes.
Kudos for implementing it.
Kudos for staying cool and use this feature.
I know of situations where police have supplied LAT/LONG info from iPhones to helos who then know where to go. It could be a toggled feature that would be more helpful than using cell tower triangulation, when and where that's even possible.
nevermind.......
As for sending exact locations to 911: Yes, both iPhone and Apple Watch need to do that. It's easy enough since both already know your location within a few meters. But then, the local 911 center needs to be equipped to accept it and use it. When I spent some time at the state of the art Pittsburgh 911 center a few years back, it did not have the capability of receiving location data even if it was sent to them. They simply had to ask "What is your address?" I don't know if that has been upgraded since.
Feature saves a woman’s life and somebody has to come in and shit on it, questioning its usability, questioning its functionality, demanding changes from Apple. It never fails.
In general, try calling your local police department's non-emergency number. They should be able to get you to the 911 call center to warn them, but they may just tell you to call 911 and tell them you're testing.