Watch your I-phone and Android!

[DutchmenSport]

We just returned from a trip to Iowa to visit the daughter and our 3 granddaughters. It was a wonderful trip, and the kids just loved sleeping in the camper with us.

But, in the midst of all our fun, we had a disheartening event. We had the two small children with us in our truck and my wife ran into the grocery store in a little town called Hubbard, Iowa.

Now, Hubbard is a small "country town", quaint, peaceful, and one of those communities where the sidewalks roll up at 5:00, everything shuts down on Sunday, and the biggest event is a random deer that might cross the road!

So, into the store she went. But when we got back to the camper, she realized her Android phone was missing. We searched everything, including going back to my daughter's house and the grocery store we were just at. No phone.

My wife called AT&T on my phone and had her phone service suspended, so no one else could use the phone. Sadly, only 3 minutes before she made the call, someone used the phone. So we knew it was in the hands of someone else.

My wife and daughter went to Ames, Iowa hoping to get another phone. Unfortunately, the representative at the mall area was not very helpful and definitely did not know how to deal with "out of state" issues. But he did say, there is a real problem, even in small towns in no-where-land, Iowa with phones getting stolen.

Today we are back home. My wife went to Indianapolis to "our" AT&T store and was able to get a new phone. Talking to the sales rep at the store, he said there is currently a REAL problem with phones getting stolen, pick-pocketed.

The culprit will somehow get the victim slightly distracted, and, instead of pick-pocketing your wallet, they take your phone.

What do they do with them? There's a real racket going on right now where anyone can simply drop a cell phone into a Kiosk and get cash back on the phone, even if the phone is not theirs!

When the Superbowl was held in Indianapolis this year, evidently there were many, many people that had their phones stolen at the event. (Good business for AT&T, but really sucks for the victim!).

SO BEWARE! We've never had anything stolen in years and years of camping all over the country ... until now. And who would have thought that in a little country town in the middle of a cornfield and windmills, such sinister events are happening!

LADIES ... DON'T leave your phones exposed in those outer pockets of your purse.

GUYS... Don't put your phone down anywhere and turn away if your are in any public environment. Keep in in your pocket, unseen!

Hard lesson we learned on this trip. Never would have thought we'd be victims of theft, but we were. It happened to us, it COULD happen to you!

Beware! Watch your I-phone and Android .... always!

[frankdamp]

We also have a dumb phone (just one!), but ours is only switched on when we want to call someone. Folks call our land-line and leave messages and we get back to them. I don't pay for a phone for the convenience of others.

[antiquedrose]

Young folk, all caught up in the digital world even on telephones! Next thing you know, they will grow up and hook up with a online community gabbing about rv'ing in the great outdoors.

[mlts22]

The good news is that Google is putting in functionality for erasing/locating/making noise on the phone in a rev of Google Play soon, and this will work on most phones out there.

Until then, I'll keep with Lookout.

[down_home]

My phone is old tech they would give it back. Left it on the counter, the other day. Clerk ran outside to give it to me. The few places we go are all like that.
We never see kids playing pick up baseball games or doing anything outdoors. Sometimes we see them, in other cities, walking down the sidewalk pecking away, at one, of the new devices or everyone on the road weaving etc with one glued to their ear.
Strange world Dict Tracy.
Remember as late as the eighties seeing things like this in comic books now everyone is bound to it by invisible tethers. Use to be everyone was preoccupied with TV. Now it is nothing but bits or reruns and lots of advertising. Then Laptops and now the air is full of radio energy from hundreds of millions of Idiots that their lives revolve around talking and texting and keeping up with the latest gossip offered by the unwired media.

[fj12ryder]

And may not have. 🙂

[DutchmenSport]

For what it's worth, tonight (if anyone is interested), my wife and I were at the Lowe's store in Anderson, Indiana. After checking out we were about out the first set of door, when this guy at the cashier's stand finished his transaction and then asked the cashier if she saw his Blackberry phone. She said no. They both looked around. No phone. The guy went into a panic and said he was going to retrace his steps. Wanna guess what just happened to this guy?

I had just purchased a porch swing, so after getting it loaded in my truck, I went back in and talk to the cashier. She said she was very much aware of phone thefts, especially after they put the phone kiosk at the Anderson (Indiana) Mounds Mall. (less than 1 mile from Lowe's). I was not able to find the guy to talk to him.

I think I have a new mission in life to warn everyone to guard your mobile devices! I'm sure this guy never thought it would happen to him either!

[Jim_Shoe]

I have a cell phone in case of my emergency - not somebody else's. Nobody knows the number but me. All it does is make phone calls. On the rare occasions that I need to make a call, I pull off the road first. Most people can't walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone drive and talk on the phone, including me. When somebody in front of me starts driving slower for no reason they're usually on their phone. That's a good thing, because I now know they're not paying full attention to what they're doing.

[Jim_Shoe]

I have a cell phone in case of my emergency - not somebody else's. Nobody knows the number but me. All it does is make phone calls. On the rare occasions that I need to make a call, I pull off the road first. Most people can't walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone drive and talk on the phone, including me. When somebody in front of me starts driving slower for no reason they're usually on their phone. That's a good thing, because I now know they're not paying full attention to what they're doing.

[Bumpyroad]

msmith1199 wrote:



I love this line from the article, "They want all smartphones equipped with a kill switch by early next year and they don’t want customers to foot the bill for this security technology."

Who do they think is going to pay the bill?

why Uncle Santa of course. :s
bumpy

[fj12ryder]

spoon059 wrote:
Its a sign of the times that we live in. If you have something of value and fail to properly secure it, someone somewhere will eventually try to steal it. Its a shame we don't live in a better society. People can either complain about it and continue to be victims, or they can take preventive actions.

You mean theft is a recent phenomenon? Hmm, I may have to take that thought with a grain of salt. 🙂

[spoon059]

Its a sign of the times that we live in. If you have something of value and fail to properly secure it, someone somewhere will eventually try to steal it. Its a shame we don't live in a better society. People can either complain about it and continue to be victims, or they can take preventive actions.

[msmith1199]

TyroneandGladys wrote:
The Feds have a great solution but it seems the phone companies do not want it.

•1.6 million Americans had a handheld device stolen last year.

•One in every three robberies nationwide involves a stolen cell phone.

•Approximately half of all robberies in San Francisco involved a mobile communications device.

HUM maybe people replacing stolen phones is to much of there business?




Feds solution

I love this line from the article, "They want all smartphones equipped with a kill switch by early next year and they don’t want customers to foot the bill for this security technology."

Who do they think is going to pay the bill?

[DutchmenSport]

Here ya go: Click here.

[bukhrn]

DutchmenSport wrote:
I think about 99% of you missed the reason I took the time to make this post. Here's the intent of what I was attempting to say. Regardless of what kind of phone you have (or any other type of electronic device), thieves are actively and aggressively pick-pocketing these devices. This is the "hot" item, easy to take, easy to get a few dollars cash, and not very traceable. Don't be the next victim. Even in the most passive moment, keep them secure.

For what it's worth, we keep no personal information on our phones. Our contact list is just names and phone numbers, and that's it. And, the replacement my wife got, we did password protect it and got the tracking app now.

It's not the fact we had anything of value ON the phone, it was just the raw inconvenience of loosing it in the first place. And when your on vacation, loosing your phone is no fun.

I didn't miss the reason Why you posted, I missed the part about dropping/placing a phone into a Kiosk & getting money back, what kind of a Kiosk & who pays this money?