Yep. My dad got his phone stolen at the gym. He called me within 10 minutes of it being stolen and I logged into his account to wipe it. Not only was it "offline" never to be returned online, he had within a day a (thankfully blocked) attempt to login to his gmail from a nearby city. They must turned it off, have removed the SIM card, and then managed to guess his pin and get credentials off it. Scary.
No, unfortunately. And I've told my parents for years to change that. They finally have now.
The reality is most people aren't security conscious until AFTER something bad happens, even if you warn them ahead of time. But this also seems to be human nature. Life is complicated enough that we try to balance things towards convenient until it's clear something has to change. This will happen with global warming, industrial foods, water policy, oil-based economies, all-your-life-online etc just like it has with lead, atomic/chemical weapons, and the lack of regulatory bodies.
Although he can't figure out who it would be, especially in that city.
The police, btw, wouldn't do anything. We even have the person's IP address on Comcast, so it's easy for law to find out the address of the actual thief. They won't waste their time on mobile theft, despite the fact that he lives in a small rich town that doesn't really have any crime!
If he owns property or stock - watch his accounts closely. It could be a sophisticated attack paired with identity theft. Location doesn't matter to crooks.
