Find My IPad (Iphone) is a treasure

If you have an IOS device, please, please, use your Find My Iphone app.  Turn it on and use it.  Recently, I have had the pleasant experience of seeing how it works.  I recently had an iPad Mini stolen.  The experience is awful, but I did have the app turned on and was quickly able to locate my device in a shady neighborhood, unfortunately, I was unable to pinpoint the exact location.  I think the thief was having some fun using it, surfing the internet.  It was my 8 year old's iPad, so not much was on it other than his extensive Minecraft worlds.  I tried reasoning with the thief, sending messages to him through the app to simply give it back or it would be bricked (a tech termed referring to turning it into a useless paperweight).  The thief seemed to think he was in the clear, until I indeed bricked the device.  Once I turned it on into Lost Mode, the device will not allow you to do anything until a password is entered, one I made up remotely.  I left a message asking them to call and simply return it.  Even offered a reward.  At this point, it was all about the principal of giving it back instead of actually needing it back.  To end the short story, the thief ended up discarding it in an alley where a good samaritan found it and called and I got it back.  All's well that ends well!!