Apple's Find My Friends app saves the life of a 17-year old

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Often when a teenager fails to return home at night, a heart breaking tragedy is behind the disappearance. So when 17-year old Macy Smith missed curfew on the evening of June 7th, her mother, Catrina Cramer Alexander, was frantic. Greensboro North Carolina's WFMY-TV reports that both mother and daughter had previously agreed to share their location with each other using the iPhone's "Find My Friends" app, and Macy wasn't answering calls or responding to texts. As Alexander put it "The lack of response was out of character for her." And "Find My Friends" showed that the teen had been in the same location all evening.

Alexander grabbed her iPhone, scooped up the family and set off in search of her missing daughter. "I can't explain watching the GPS on my phone with my dot for my phone getting close to hers and then suddenly seeing the tire tracks," Macy's mom said later. When she got to the location, she discovered that her daughter had been pinned underneath her car for seven hours at the bottom of a 25-foot drop. As Macy explained, she got into that position when her car hydroplaned "and I went in between two trees and I flipped over and I rolled three times."

Smith's mother gives God the credit for helping her find her daughter and said, "She won't have any feeling on her left arm for a while, but she knows it could've been much worse. It's just truly a miracle and I give it all to God." But the teen credits technology for her safe return. "I just hope that all parents and teenagers will encourage their families to get this app," she said.

If you want to learn how to set up the "Find My Friends" app for the iPhone to help you track a relative or friend's location, WFMY-TV created a tutorial that you can view below. Just keep in mind that if someone does not want to be tracked, they can simply decide not to allow another person to follow the location of their device.

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