Aaniyah Jamison and Sean Siebert were celebrating Siebert's birthday in Wrigleyville when they realized Jamison's phone had been stolen.
"I was like, Where's my phone?" Jamison recalled.
Using location tracking, the couple traced the device to an ecoATM kiosk inside a South Loop grocery store.
"So, we go inside we ask customer service and they said that they just heard pinging from the kiosk," Jamison said.
The kiosk is one of hundreds of ecoATM locations in the Chicago area and across Illinois. The kiosks allow smartphone and tablet owners to recycle or sell devices.
But Jamison and Siebert are asking how a criminal was able to deposit Jamison's phone in the kiosk and the couple is questioning their nearly two-day delay, trying to get the phone back.
"We had the officers come, they were on the phone, and even though we got them on the phone, they verified that his officer, the door wouldn't open and it was locked for some reason," Jamison said.
"We were there an hour with the police on the phone struggling to open the door, and they kept trying to see all the doors open. And on our end, it never opened," Siebert said.
The couple returned the next day and were eventually able to retrieve the phone. Jamison said the process left her feeling frustrated.
When asked whether she felt like she was being treated as a criminal, Jamison replied, "Yeah, we honestly were on the phone with them for so long trying to just they kept asking me all these questions, and I'm like, I wouldn't make up this big lie to get some random phone."
According to Chicago Police Department data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, 39 criminal cases had involved an ecoATM as of July 1. That pace would exceed 2025, when 51 cases were filed. There were 31 cases filed in 2024 and 45 filed in 2023.
ecoATM told the I-Team it takes reports involving stolen devices seriously and has multiple safeguards designed to deter theft and assist law enforcement. The company provided a video showing its verification process.
Sellers are required to verify their identity using a government-issued ID that is reviewed by a live remote agent. According to the company, the agent compares the identification with a live image of the seller and can block a transaction if a match cannot be confirmed.
ecoATM said devices are screened against databases of reported lost or stolen phones and that transaction images and records are available to law enforcement when needed. The company said it provided those records in Jamison's case. Jamison said the safeguards may not prevent someone from quickly selling a phone that does not belong to them.
"It doesn't prove that it's their phone," she said.
In a statement regarding Jamison's case, the company said, "...a technical issue caused a delay in returning the phone. Our team worked closely with law enforcement..." and was able to reunite the owner with the device the following day. The company also said it is "...committed to supporting law-enforcement investigations, helping recover stolen property whenever possible, and continually improving our technology and security processes."
Despite recovering her device, Jamison said she wants stronger protections in place.
"I want them to take more precautions to ensure that the property that they're receiving is not stolen," she said.
ecoATM said its goal is to make its kiosks one of the least attractive places for anyone attempting to sell a stolen phone. Experts recommend enabling location tracking, theft and stolen-device protections, using a strong passcode and Face ID, and reporting a theft immediately so the device can be entered into databases before it is resold.