A young mother is hoping that an anti-theft iPhone app can help her retrieve precious pictures of her baby stored on a stolen cell phone.

Xie Danhong, 33, said she dropped her phone in a taxi during a business trip to Beijing on Thursday and feared she had lost all the photographs and video clips she made of her 9-month-old daughter with it.

However, just six hours later, the iPhone automatically sent her a picture of the suspected thief - thanks to iGotYa.