According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Emily Kitson and her partner had given up hope of getting the smartphone back after reporting the theft to an unhelpful police officer.
After hearing that the thief had made his getaway in a taxi, Kitson realised that the theft was recorded on the store's CCTV - and that an app, Google Latitude, could allow her mobile to be traced.
"With CCTV footage available for police to obtain from Broadmeadows Shopping Centre and the Google Latitude app pin-pointing the phone to a suburban house, Emily and her partner believed they had some hope in retrieving it with the help of police", says the Herald.
"But Kitson said, the police officer she and [her partner} Josh spoke to at Broadmeadows police station was unhelpful to deal with. `I told them everything that I had, I gave them a description, I said that we had tracked [the thief] to an address and that it was still updating and that I had him on video doing it,' Ms Kitson said", adds the paper.
After later discovering that the police officer they had reported the theft to had gone on leave and apparently not reported the theft, Kitson and her partner continued to ask the police what was happening.
Whilst all this was going on, Kitson could see the location of the iPhone being updated, but there was little she could do about it.
Then, after dealing with the police for a few days, Kitson's partner Josh escalated the case to the Victoria Police Conduct Unit. "The police were not helping us at all", Kitson told the paper.
Finally a police squad car was dispatched to the address, only for police to claim that the address did not exist.
"So Josh went on Google Maps and printed out pictures of the house. He found a real-estate listing of it to prove that it was a real house. I don't know what [the police] were looking at", Kitson told the paper.
"They then went to the police station to explain how the Google Latitude software worked and officers were given several photos Josh had of locations to which the phone had been tracked", said the paper.
Ten days after the iPhone 4 was stolen, the police finally retrieved the handset at midnight from the address where the smartphone was locating itself. A 14-year-old girl had apparently bought the handset for A$80 (about £52) from the thief.
The girl appeared to admit the phone was stolen as she texted her friends to advise them of her new phone and SIM card number, but added that "I can't tell you where from."
In a statement, Victoria Police said they were satisfied that the matter was investigated thoroughly and, within the competing context of policing priorities, a good result was achieved.
The moral of this story, Infosecurity notes, is that perseverance and the use of GPS technology can get an iPhone back. But it may be best to take extra care of your smartphone when visiting Australia.