Stolen ipad - Remote Lock vs. Remote Wipe

I know who stole my ipad (and where it probably is) but obviously can't get it back.

I am apprehensive to remote wipe it because I worry that wiping it will give them access to use it and start fresh. I remote locked it (even though I don't recall ever having a password lock on it). It seemed to work and said that it would notify me if it ever got turned on. So far no email.
Any thoughts on what I should do? Should I remote wipe it now (giving them access to use it) or keep it remote locked so that if they do ever try to use it #1, they wont be able to because of the lock, and #2 because it will send me the email telling me where it is????? It' s been 3 weeks since they stole it.

If you know who stole it and where it might be, perhaps you can contact the authorities and have them look for it?

I wish the Toledo police worked that way. I told them who has and where it most likely is it and they told me to go get it. LOL! OK, I'm now supposed to go break into the home of the people who broke into my house?? They told me they have too many violent crimes on their docket to bother with my non violent theft crime.Any thoughts on weather I should just bite the bullet and wipe it. I just hate the idea of giving them access to use it as their own.

Tough situation... Just keep it remote locked for now. If there is a time when the police don't have much to deal with, call them. I wouldn't risk going to get it back. They could have a weapon. Just leave it. BTW- You could just track it.

Wow, quite a nice police department you have there..

Can you use Find My iPad and get the exact location or is it turned off right now? If you've got a remote lock in place, I would keep that on since you definitely don't want to wipe it out and have them start using your iPad..

Do you have a local sheriff's office that can help with this or not? Not sure how different states/counties work..

I'll have to get back to you on that, some homework. You can use Find My iPad to pinpoint it's location if it is on, but if not you must wait for it to turn on. If you have seen a red indicator bubble, it is either off, nonfunctional, Location Services off, or has been wiped by them! They can restore it while it is in iTunes. If you believe they can be reasoned with, you can send it a message within Find My iPad. You could try a swap, such as $200 for the iPad, because they would have no use while it is locked. Just leave it as a stalemate until you can get some more data. It may not be worth your time, it may also be worth it to just buy a new iPad.

While, the city of providence (I assumed you were in that area because of your avatar) has a daily arrest log at http://www.providenceri.com/police/daily-arrest-log so you may be able to predict times of low crime rates. I also suggest looking up crime rates on Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine just search (your county) crime rates. If your officers will take kindly to redundancy, I do not know. Either way, this is not too too big of a crime, so I suggest giving it another month or so and see what you get.

Thanks for the advise everyone.
Here is another question. Next to my ipad icon on Find My Phone it says " Lock sent on;;;" at the bottom it says ' You'll receive an email when your ipad has been locked."
Does this mean they haven't yet turned it on? Or does this mean it is not locked and they have access to all of my info on it?
If the latter is true I guess I need to wipe it ASAP. Anyone know?

Thanks for the advise everyone.
Here is another question. Next to my ipad icon on Find My Phone it says " Lock sent on;;;" at the bottom it says ' You'll receive an email when your ipad has been locked."
Does this mean they haven't yet turned it on? Or does this mean it is not locked and they have access to all of my info on it?
If the latter is true I guess I need to wipe it ASAP. Anyone know?

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They have not turned it on, most likely. They could have disconnected it and then wiped it themselves.

I have a question: do you think most cases of lost/stolen ipads are wiped when found?

I have a ipad without 3g that's been missing for 3 or 4 days. The only thing i'm worried about is my information on it so knowing I wouldn't get it back, I tried wiping it from icloud but they haven't connected it to the internet just yet. Do you think more then likely, it's been wiped?

Similar Situation

Hi guys, I also had my iPad stolen. I used Find My iPhone to remote lock it and send a message informing whomever has it that it is stolen and how they can return it to me. But, after receiving the email confirmation, Find My iPhone was unable to locate it. Is there anyway to find out where it was when the confirmation email was sent?