A method of locating a mobile station that is turned off. The method includes turning off the mobile station while keeping a battery of the mobile station intact in the mobile station. The mobile station enters a soft power-off mode after the mobile station has been turned off if the battery of the mobile station has sufficient energy. The mobile station receives paging request messages from at least one base station and the mobile station measures RSSI levels for received paging request messages. The mobile station then selects a current base station for which the mobile station measures a strongest RSSI level. The mobile station handshakes with the current base station to enable the mobile station to camp on the current base station. Next, the mobile station reports its location to the current base station and the current base station informs authorities of the location of the mobile station.