Stolen Mobile Phone

[TOMsGPTurbo]

Hey guys,

 

Just a FYI, I learnt something today,

 

I purchased for my wife a new Samsung HD Icon i8910 16gb with a micro SD 16gb card last xmas, it was jam packet with everything, photos, songs, personal data, etc etc,

Today whilst coming to visit me, my wife sat down at the bus stop (A9/10) at 12:50pm in the Myer centre, put her docs down on top of the mobile, got up and walked around the corner.

 

Realised she has just left her phone behind, turns around walks back and it's gone, though the guy sitting 3 seats up tells her he hasn't seen anyone and doesn't know what she is talking about, and suggests to check out lost/found. He quickly jumps on to bus and disappears towards Garden City.

 

My wife comes to my work, tells me the story, I went back to suss out the area, people, centre management, security, no one can help. However I did note that there is a CCTV camera pointing to exactly where she was sitting. I called the phone, left a couple of messages asking for the finder to please return it to the closest police station or contact me on my number. Called it again and its switched off.

I go back to work, lodge a lost/stolen property QP form but I learn that we need a IMEI number.

 

Now, if you haven’t' done this, or know about it, do it right now if you care about your phone.

 

The International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI (pronounced /aɪˈmiː/) is a number, usually unique,[1][2] to identify GSM, WCDMA, and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone. It can also be displayed on the screen of the phone by entering *#06# into the keypad on most phones.

 

The IMEI number is used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used for stopping a stolen phone from accessing the network in that country. For example, if a mobile phone is stolen, the owner can call his or her network provider and instruct them to "ban" the phone using its IMEI number. This renders the phone useless in that country, whether or not the phone's SIM is changed. However, the phone can be used abroad.

 

Unlike the Electronic Serial Number or MEID of CDMA and other wireless networks, the IMEI is only used for identifying the device, and has no permanent or semi-permanent relation to the subscriber. Instead, the subscriber is identified by transmission of an IMSI number, which is stored on a SIM card that can (in theory) be transferred to any handset. However, many network and security features are enabled by knowing the current device being used by a subscriber.

read more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity

 

Write down your IMEI number somewhere safe, I was lucky I kept the original box the phone came in and I found it on a sticker on the side of the box.

The phone will be hopefully a nice shinny brick tomorrow.

 

So, will the police ever find the phone?

 

From my experience, Maybe ...if the person who stole it is arrested and taken into custody the police at the time of receipting the property on the person can run a IMEI search and find out that the phone is stolen and return it to its owner.

 

Or hopefully the person does the right thing and drops in at police station as lost property.

 

Where did all the honest people go?

[Des]

Not many left in the world.

[TOMsGPTurbo]

Maybe a select couple, it appears that it may have been handed in.... :)

My hopes are high!!

[B.L.Z.BUB]

I saw a thing on the "news" probably those everything is terrible try hard "news"shows.

 

Some chick lost her iPhone,

 

She had an app to track it online. tracked it to a taxi drivers house.

 

He denied it and they recorded him freaking out and rushing back to the depot to put it back in the Taxi.

 

So freakin funny

[TOMsGPTurbo]

hehe, stupid taxi driver, that app should be for all phones, imagine how many dishonest people it could track down.

Rather then being charged in court etc, there should be a $1000 on the spot fine for possession of stolen property.

 

I'm going to see if I can find this app you talk of.

[TOMsGPTurbo]

my hopes are dashed, it wasn't the phone, .... we went to BCC lost n found.. wrong phone :sob:

[TOMsGPTurbo]

I couldn't find that tracker thingy, surely there is a way to track a smartphone!

Do any rollaclub members work in the telecom industry :P

[irokin]

MobileMe for iPhones: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC660Z/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

 

That'll be the one blzbubs talking about. Its been used for all sorts of things like tracking removal vans and recovering cameras that have flown on weather balloons.

 

Find your lost iPhone or iPad.

 

If you lose your iPhone or iPad, MobileMe can help you find it on a map. Use Remote Lock to keep your information safe until you get your device back, or Remote Wipe to erase your personal data and protect your privacy.

 

Probably something out there for Android, no idea for Symbian.

[KETURBO25]

Ive had a car stolen and burnt, bought a bike for 1200 and that got stolen, had a phone stolen, and had a similar situation to you on a train but it involved my wallet which had about 50 bucks and i never saw it again.

 

This may come across as being a bit harsh for a punishment, but i think if your caught stealing, and i mean theres proof and theres no two ways about it, you should have one of your fingers cut off. Like literally cut off with a pair of pliers.

 

Like i said i know its a bit harsh but if theres a chance that you could have that happen to you, wouldnt you think twice about stealing something? i sure know i would! When you have something stolen from you it leaves you with a strange feeling of loss, you just feel so helpless and upset that you don't know what to do with yourself, Thieves are the shit stain of society, and its time they all paid a price for the bullshit they put people through.

[ke70dave]

haha i like it ke25turb....

 

what i can't understand is how people sleep at night knowing they have stolen someone elses stuff. i mean...its not yours...its theirs. although in the big scheme of things we came into this world with nothing, and we are going to leave this world with nothing, so its not really any of ours...but if you work hard and you buy something you like, its knowones right to just steal it just because they want it. if you want something, get out there and get a damn job and earn it.

 

whats interesting is my mate was in japan and left his laptop on a train. he figured it was gone but gave his details etc to the train company, but they tracked him down a few weeks later, and he got his laptop back and it had not been touched. not even turned on. so i think there are plenty of good people in the world, but unfortunately you only hear about the bad ones.

[KETURBO25]

Thats a good story man, glad to hear that he got his laptop back,

but ive gotta say that stories like that are VERY rare.

 

After i wrote my theory on the 'finger off' punishment, i went on

google and did some research to see if anything like that had ever

been enforced in any other countries, and guess what i found...

 

The President of italy in 1922 was Benito Mussolini, he enforced a law

which stated that if you were convicted of thievery, you would have

your hand sawed off! Needless to say, stealing in that country came

almost to a complete stop, i read further into it and the people

of Italy were all for the idea and that theyed never felt safer.

[ke70dave]

yeah i dunno about rare, ive had mates who have lost their wallets and got them back. ive had mates who have lost them and never seen them again too....

 

steeling is somewhat of a selfish mentality and such mentality is growing at an alarming rate to the point where it is almost the "norm". ie have what you want, go where you want to go with no regard for anyone else. steeling is just at the extreme end of this mentality. and i don't know how you go about changing it without rules such as the cut off the hand thing.

 

same deal should be for drink driving or doing burn outs, if you get caught, you can't have a license for 2yrs, and if you need it for your job, i don't care, should have thought about that before you did a burnout. its far to easy to "Get of lightly" i reckon.

[TOMsGPTurbo]

I completely agree, I worked really hard to buy the phone and saved for half of the year in order to buy it, bring on Benito Mussolini laws I say!! :hmm:

[67Rolla-Ken]

Can you imagine that law with our shonky legal system?? :hmm:

[KETURBO25]

Can you imagine that law with our shonky legal system?? :hmm:

 

Lol there would be politicians and cops getting

around without fingers all over the joint!