A Piece of Cake
The other day I lost my phone. It was an Iphone 3G. I had gotten it as its third owner, as it was previously my dad’s and then my brother’s before it reached me. It was quite old, maybe about 5 years already, and had a crack on the back and the tell-tale signs of age. I took such good care of it that its loss made me simply hope that it falls apart in the thief’s hands.
The circumstances for snatching were perfect: I was using a bag that apparently made access easy, my phone had a brightly-colored case and I was walking in a main commuter throuroughfare (even if it was in a mall with security guards). After 7 years of commuting everyday to my school and back (which is roughly 2 hours going and coming home each day), I would have thought that by now I’d be more careful with my habits. Apparently, I was off guard this time, and was asking for it.
The number of cellphone thefts committed per day must be of no surprise anymore. The nonchalance people have taken towards its occurence is a sign of how it has become a matter of the owner’s carelessness, or simply the awaiting misfortune-depending on what phone model you decided to buy. Perhaps at most, one can only feel irritable and annoyed that all those years (if it reached that long) of contacts, photos and videos, those nights of spending hours just personalizing the phone to suit one’s taste, had led to nothing. “Good thing I backed up my files,” might provide some comfort.
In my effort to find something, to get back at the thief somehow, I realized that there is no way to counter theft (yet). Possibly the first effort to find a solution to lessen theft seems non-existent now. Some forums and sites I found along the way even had the bluntness of providing help in "unblocking a stolen phone".
What to do? Move on, move forward. And buy a cheaper phone. :)