iPhone Savior: Sex Offenders Beware, Apple Unbanishes Offender Locator App

As mysteriously as it disappeared from the App Store, the top selling app Offender Locator ($.99) has quietly returned in the wee hours of the night with little fanfare. Not only has it been unbanished by Apple, but it's also been restored to the Top 10 of Paid Apps, reigning again at number one in the Utilities category. Simply magical isn't it?

Tech Crunch reported on August 6th "Another Popular One Is Pulled", referring to Offender Locator being stealthily banished from the App Store. What many failed to notice at the time, was that a competing application, Sex Offenders Search ($1.99) still remained active in the App Store. Some speculated that Offender Locator was pulled by Apple because it turned a spotlight on registered sex offenders for profit which is forbidden in some states, including California. Yet Sex Offenders Search somehow survived any scrutiny whatsoever.

It took only a few days to see the popular Top 10 app reinstated into the App Store, in a triumphant return that's equally as baffling as the exile was. Making it even more painfully obvious that Apple's App Store approval processes are wildly flawed. Which may be an understatement at this point.

ThinAir Wireless, developers of Offender Locator could not be reached for comment, but word that the company was considering mounting an epic legal suit against Apple, may shed some light on the app's shocking return. Or not!

More importantly, registered sex offenders everywhere who might have taken a big sigh of relief when the wildly popular Offender app was first removed (according to Gizmodo), should now be back on high alert realizing that their names, addresses and photos can be spied instantly from anywhere via iPhone. Yep, there's an app for that too fellas!