Lost iPad helps owner find it across U.S.

SACRAMENTO, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The iPad's positioning system let its owner track it down across the country when he lost it on a plane ride.

Curtis Cogdill of Sacramento, Calif., left his new Apple tablet computer on a plane when he flew to Oregon with his wife and newborn baby last weekend, KOVR-TV, Sacramento, reported.

"Last time I remember seeing it was Sacramento Airport. I don't remember pulling it out on the plane," he said.

Cogdill realized his iPad was missing when he landed in Portland. Neither he nor his wife had held onto it, so it flew across the country.

Using the MobileMe application on his iPod, Cogdill located the iPad at the Orlando, Fla., airport.

"You can zoom all the way in and can tell it was sitting where an airplane should be sitting at the terminal," he said.

Cogdill called Southwest Airlines and reached a supervisor in Orlando.

As he tracked the iPad out of the airport and to a home, the supervisor contacted police, who retrieved it. A new Southwest employee who took the iPad was fired, the airline said.