High (tech) drama on the 77 bus

I was sitting on the 77 bus going home about half past ten, the bus was the usual mix of slightly grumpy and wary people who inhabit late buses. It's a curious balance of trying to shut out the world and concentrate on book/music/mobile phone screen/Evening Standard and at the same time stay aware of any trouble that might kick off. We'd just left Vauxhall with the mishmash of half the bus getting off and being refilled by those waiting. The melee of seat changes was over and we could settle down. Police sirens screamed from behind as the bus pulled into the next stop, no-one blinked assuming the sirens would rush ahead of us. They didn't. They pulled in in front of us, blocking us in. About a dozen police, some in uniform, some plain clothes jumped on the bus. Now we were paying attention. 'Don't move, stay in your seats, there's been an incident and we know that what we're looking for is on this bus'. Now we are properly intrigued. What had happened? How had our sleepy bus journey turned into an incident? Some people were tutting and muttering, most wanted to know what had happened. We looked around - no sign of an incident on this bus. Then we are asked to file off the bus one at a time to have our bags checked. Evidently something had been nicked. I was on the lower deck at the front and so one of the first to be searched. 'What colour was the cover?' the policemen asked his colleague as he took my iPad out of the bag. 'Orange' he replied. 'You're all right this is blue' the policeman reassured me. So an iPad had been nicked and because Find my iPhone was on, the police knew that it was on the bus. Those of us who had been searched were asked to wait on the pavement. The policeman with the tracking iphone was standing among us. 'Oh you can set off an alarm' he suddenly remembered and set off the alarm. You could see the heads on the top deck turn and a couple of minutes later a young man was marched off the bus with the stolen iPad. Allowed back on the bus the mood was transformed. Here we were in the midst of our own little drama. Our own 77 soap opera, the action had taken place, the wrong doer found and about to be nicked, here was some late night entertainment and we were an engaged audience. The bus depot was giving the driver a hard time for stopping and threatening to cancel this bus and make us all wait for a later bus. We could hear the conversation and the passengers were on the driver's side, increasingly annoyed by bus company bureaucracy. We were ready to take over the bus if the depot said stop. I think they must have heard the hubbub in the background and agreed to let the driver take us home. But we were transformed. No longer silent and apart, we had now bonded, we were chatting. There was laughter and people who a few minutes before had been annoyed by fellow travellers bags/size/demeanour were now chatting happily. Bus crowds are mobile phone users more than iPad users and many were amazed how a device could tell the police where it was. After watching the humiliation of the person who'd stolen the iPad walking through the bus, I think anyone who might have thought these devices were fair game, might be thinking again.