Not even a month... my Galaxy R is stolen

S

I was on the bus this morning.. it was extra crowded. I reach in my jacket pocket (yes... my inside jacket pocket I just opened my jacket since it was a bit stuffy)... and I begin feeling around, then that sickening feeling starts creeping up.

Yep. it's gone. I look around on the bus floor... maybe it fell down (fat chance). I asked for someone's phone and made a call to my number.. not reachable. Sim thrown in minutes...

This feeling sucks. I hadn't even intalled those anti theft apps... dammit.

I haven't gone to the police yet... too depressed to go anywhere... and I'm at work. I guess I should make that trip tonight or tomorrow...

I googled a bit out of desperation and installed the 'Plan B' app. Donno if it will get installed... mobile has GPRS, SIM thrown away, GPS icon was off when I last had it.

Gah! I always check my pockets 10 times whenever I'm on the bus and STILL this happens... I hate the world right now.

^My sympathies are with u..even I m also a victim of this mobile theft...

report to police ASAP & give them IMEI no of your mobile.
pick pocketer are smart now a days which is a serious concern for us

Go to the police. Lodge a complaint. Give your IMEI number. Say its stolen (yes then only they will start doing what you want them to do)
They might end of finding it :wink:

Don't wait any longer , i know it feels upsetting to even move but you have to do this one thing asap !

Aw shucks. I know the feeling, same happened to my Nexus S

Of Dead Hard Drives, Stolen Phones & ICICI Bank Dumbassery My World

M

I'm not sure how far it works. Give a try with www.samsungdive.com if you had a samsung account configured with your phone. Just a try.

My heart goes out to you.

*market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&hl=en

Your words illustrates how dejected you are....

dont bow down, do everything whatever you can to catch culprit.

commiserations bro. Even I lost my phone recently.
Hope you are able to track it out. But don't keep much hopes of getting it back though.

U

MANOfJosh said:
I'm not sure how far it works. Give a try with www.samsungdive.com if you had a samsung account configured with your phone. Just a try.

My heart goes out to you.

try this method
it might work

Theory: Stolen phone IMEI and new phone number can be matched, Hence the thief/current user can be nabbed by location + smart talking

The thing is police can tract the phone and nab the thief if they put in the effort, with the IMEI number.
The operator can track the phone to a half km zone or something, (cell towers reach) and since they can associate the IMEI number to a phone number all that remains is some smart talking and getting him nabbed.
Calling the operator will yield no result as they are not authorised to do so. Hence you have to do it through the police.

In Practice:
You file a police complaint, they get an FIR done. You give them IMEI number, bill, time, place, your number. They give you assurance, paperwork and a smile.

Nothing happens after that. Saw this happen to many of my friends.

-----

Unrelated to the topic, the only time I lost my phone, it was returned to be by a blessed soul.

-----

If you were a high ranking official or some political progeny you would get your phone back in a weeks time. You can use some recommendation

------------------------

I remember, during the oh-so-not-smart-but-smartphone days, my friends credit card sized Samsung phone had a gleaming phone tracker / anti-theft SW pre-installed from Sammy.
His phone got stolen / lost.

Software worked like a charm. The new number (thief's) was sent to 3 other numbers he had pre-entered and he took this number and gave it to the police.

What happened after that is anyone's guess? (at least the majority guess)

S

Thanks for the kind words, I guess.

As soon as I posted my first message, I sat around and moped a bit. Then I thought I ought to get the process over with, so I excused myself from work and went off to the police station.

There, I had a 20 minute debate about the difference between reporting my phone as "missing" (their recommendation) and "stolen" (as written in my application).
Only after this debate, they sent me off to some back room where the apparently do 'mobile surveillance'.

The guy in that room was all friendly and stuff, took my application, jotted down details and sent me off with a smile. Outside, I thought all that was probably a ruse, so maintained my depressed state.

Then I went off and spent a few hours to get a replacement SIM.

Now I'm back home.

*sigh*

That phone was from most of my very first salary

I was gonna start Android programming with it

This almost feels like a Valentine's Day heartbreak

I guess when you have a high-end phone, you need to make sure other aspects of your life are high end as well... no bus transport, no roaming around dodgy places...

life = female doggie.
temporarily hate everyone.
gonna go sleep.
bye.

EDIT:

Aw shucks. I know the feeling, same happened to my Nexus S

Of Dead Hard Drives, Stolen Phones & ICICI Bank Dumbassery My World

That blog post of yours was like a movie script for what happened to me this morning... hah.

I

Is it possible to have an insurance for phones.
Incase the phone is lost then can get a new one from Insurance company?

Santa Maria! said:
I guess when you have a high-end phone, you need to make sure other aspects of your life are high end as well... no bus transport, no roaming around dodgy places...

so true... but we r human, getting tempted to all high end-ies is our nature, but.......!

life = female doggie.
temporarily hate everyone.
gonna go sleep.
bye.

i know how it feels when u have to pay for your misfortune, btw if i(own SGR) can be any of your help thn do ask...(eg. remotely installing/testing any tracker app or any such method if such exists or experimenting any searching method for SGR...)

The blatant truth is that what Sarath mentioned. But do find about private trackers. They do tracing work and return the phone to you at some cost. One of my friend had succesfully got his N70 back, back in 2007. So my best wishes with you.

I

Sad to hear.. First report it to your network's customer care, then go to local police station and lodge a complaint.. Next time use some security apps and try to place your mobile in your shirt pocket whenever you get in to a bus..

I remember police station guys said that their machines were not working and didn't register the complaint. But the phone was some low tier Nokia.

First of all I feel sorry for your loss Santa Maria. Loosing a phone which you had "earned" is actually more depressing than a heart break. Atleast for us geeks.

I can relate to this feeling, since I had lost two phones back in the days. One of my dad's and then one of my mom! One phone was pick pocketed in a bus and the other fell down from my loose pockets while cycling!(yeah it happens). [I also lost my wallet once on a bus of same route, but that’s another story].
Thankfully those were low ends phones but still those were of my parents and anyone can imagine what it must have been felt like to face them afterwards.

Today I am an owner of my first Android phone which I bought after months of savings from my salary. After the incidents of pick pocket in previous days, now I take care of my phone more than even me! I keep them only in my front jeans pockets, and never take my hands of it. I have to behave that I am travelling with a diamond ring in my pockets, which for the most part is true to some extent! But that’s the care we have to take if we can only afford travelling on public transport like buses.

Santa Maria! said:
I guess when you have a high-end phone, you need to make sure other aspects of your life are high end as well... no bus transport, no roaming around dodgy places...

Well, I can see the frustration you have right now. When I had realize that the phone was missing from me when I got out from the bus, it was like somebody just took the heart out of the chest and ripped it apart in front of me! I can imagine, that it also feels like you have done the biggest mistake of your life by buying the phone in the first place!
BUT, you should not feel depressed. It’s a part of life. You can’t control your destiny. Don’t think it like, “Why me?” Think it like, “Somebody had to be the victim. And you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Well, I believe nothing I say will help you in getting the phone back. But even if it helps realizing a little that it was not your fault in any way, and that life has something better for you, then I believe I have accomplished my goal.

Lastly, I hope you get your phone back!

Sarath said:
Theory: Stolen phone IMEI and new phone number can be matched, Hence the thief/current user can be nabbed by location + smart talking

The thing is police can tract the phone and nab the thief if they put in the effort, with the IMEI number.
The operator can track the phone to a half km zone or something, (cell towers reach) and since they can associate the IMEI number to a phone number all that remains is some smart talking and getting him nabbed.
Calling the operator will yield no result as they are not authorised to do so. Hence you have to do it through the police.

In Practice:
You file a police complaint, they get an FIR done. You give them IMEI number, bill, time, place, your number. They give you assurance, paperwork and a smile.

Nothing happens after that. Saw this happen to many of my friends.

+1 true

Sarath said:
What happened after that is anyone's guess? (at least the majority guess)

My guessing is always wrong so I pass

S

Huh.. I thought I made a post, but I guess something went wrong with my net.

Anyway, thanks for all the sympathy, guys. It's kinda soothing (like Vyom's post). And quite a few with similar experiences too... maybe we should start a club.

i know how it feels when u have to pay for your misfortune, btw if i(own SGR) can be any of your help thn do ask...(eg. remotely installing/testing any tracker app or any such method if such exists or experimenting any searching method for SGR...)

Thanks, man. But I doubt anything else can be done now... besides those private trackers someone mentioned... but I donno.

Oh, and I just remembered that my phone had the 'unlock with pattern' thing enabled.
How secure is that? The thing comes into effect even if the phone is restarted, right?

Then again, these thieves may have some connection with some lowly employees at remote Samsung service centres, don't you think? Maybe they get those bad-apple-employees to do some flashing or something, eh?

PS: Forgot to check out that Samsung Dive thing that was posted here.
Seems nice, but I didn't have a Samsung account configured v__v

Pattern unlock goes away when phone is restarted. And phone can be restored to factory settings to remove all stuff. Hope your email accounts are safe.

sorry to hear that buddy...hope you get your phone back soon.
I know this won't make you feel any better but recently one of my friend lost an Iphone 4s 32gb(bought for 42k), used it only for a month. The police refused to take his complaint saying that it was not stolen, he left the phone in the cab. He could track the phone for a while, but then the culprit kept it switched off or maybe even cleaned it up completely.

V

I'm sorry to hear that. :cry:

. Did you go to the police station to have them check the location of your phone?

abhidev said:
sorry to hear that buddy...hope you get your phone back soon.
I know this won't make you feel any better but recently one of my friend lost an Iphone 4s 32gb(bought for 42k), used it only for a month. The police refused to take his complaint saying that it was not stolen, he left the phone in the cab. He could track the phone for a while, but then the culprit kept it switched off or maybe even cleaned it up completely.

I won't do that if I had one

police wont consider as a theft they insist on making a missing/lost complaint.
bcoz F.I.R needs to be closed once it is opened....& they won't get into this hassle

Log a case with the local police
give FIR number to concerned service provider

service provider will get new sim details from the associated imei
[these details will be the complete address of the sim owner]

send report to police

nab the culprit

Legal Note:
As of 2009, any stolen item of value more than 2k gets the accused an option to be pardoned by the plaintiff.
Upon conviction, the accused can get jail time of 3- 3.5years

Zangetsu said:
I won't do that if I had one

police wont consider as a theft they insist on making a missing/lost complaint.
bcoz F.I.R needs to be closed once it is opened....& they won't get into this hassle

yea...but the police is not ready to take his complaint as he left it in a cab.

really sorry to hear about the incident bro.
happened to me when my N73ME was stolen from car at traffic stop light!

i can understand the agony u must be going through now.
dont burden ur heart with grief, u couldn't have done anything about it. instead take this as a lesson. and yep, u were true with the statement that with such costly things....comes big responsibilities. (worries & tension, i say!)
engage urself in something which'll help you fade this incidental loss.
Good luck in future.

Zangetsu said:
I won't do that if I had one

police wont consider as a theft they insist on making a missing/lost complaint.
bcoz F.I.R needs to be closed once it is opened....& they won't get into this hassle

Yup,this has happend with my parents.
My dad and moms cell got robbed one from a lift in the mall.
And one from the table in our shop :shock:

.
The police refused to take any complaint they said,Just say them to get a new sim,because by mistake you dropped your cell why going in an auto. :-?

Guys sorry for asking my query. Just wanted to check is there any way I can have my Phone blocked through Nokia if I produce the bill. I know most probably I will not be able to recover the phone. But just checking if it's possible to make sure the guy who got it should not be able to use. I used an online thing called MGIS to track the phone but those blokes didn't revert.

^Its possible, but you'll need support of Nokia+ service providers. This is done by IMEI tracing.

R

Not sure about Noida cops, but bangalore cops are lazy.. i lost my phone too, never got it back...same with my friend's Defy+...

was it insured?

R

Thats really bad. I hope you get it back

ajayritik said:
Guys sorry for asking my query. Just wanted to check is there any way I can have my Phone blocked through Nokia if I produce the bill. I know most probably I will not be able to recover the phone. But just checking if it's possible to make sure the guy who got it should not be able to use. I used an online thing called MGIS to track the phone but those blokes didn't revert.

service providers can only block the IMEI

which is called blacklist

S

With these modern day super-multimedia phones, thieves might not even care that the phone is IMEI-blocked. They can still use the phone as a music player, video player, camera, storage device... maybe even install apps?

The 'phone' part of the phone is like a minor feature nowadays.

Santa Maria! said:
With these modern day super-multimedia phones, thieves might not even care that the phone is IMEI-blocked. They can still use the phone as a music player, video player, camera, storage device... maybe even install apps?

The 'phone' part of the phone is like a minor feature nowadays.

very few thieves keep it with them while most of them sell it ASAP...after all they want is money... :mrgreen:

and professional thieves own very cheap quality phones

S

Yeah. I meant to say whoever the phone is sold to can still make quite good use of it.

Zangetsu said:
service providers can only block the IMEI which is called blacklist

If it's Service Providers who I have to rely on for blocking the IMEI thing then I don't think it will work. With so many service providers in the market am I expected to go and have this requested with everyone. No Way.

Santa Maria! said:
With these modern day super-multimedia phones, thieves might not even care that the phone is IMEI-blocked. They can still use the phone as a music player, video player, camera, storage device... maybe even install apps?
The 'phone' part of the phone is like a minor feature nowadays.

I don't agree with you here. The guy who gets the phone and doesn't want to hand over it to Police Station or something has only one intention to sell of the phone and get money out of it.

Santa Maria! said:
Yeah. I meant to say whoever the phone is sold to can still make quite good use of it.

I really doubt if there is someone who is really educated etc and from the right background will try to use it or not return to the owner. The guys who don't return I feel are primarily folks who are not that learned type and would not know much about some of the smart phones. So they would most probably sell it.

Santa maria, bro if you are investing so much on the mobile why didn't you get the phone insured just for mere 1000 bucks even if it's covered for one year.

S

^ I really had no idea about insurance for phones and stuff.
Live & learn

ajayritik said:
If it's Service Providers who I have to rely on for blocking the IMEI thing then I don't think it will work. With so many service providers in the market am I expected to go and have this requested with everyone. No Way.

Not like that bro,blacklisting a IMEI means it will be shared by every service provider..so need to go to each & every service provider..
bcoz a central database(universal) is used to keep the blacklisted IMEI :wink:

N

I can feel it buddy. I lost mine too. It was 2nd day to my new job place. I was boarding a bus from SEEPZ Andheri Gate 3 to Kanjurmarg station in evening while returning home. As soon as bus came, everyone tried to get in ASAP. I went in along with the rush.

Normally, i have habit of listening to music while travelling. My hands automatically reached my pockets and i was shocked just like you. It was my SE K790i, purchased it for 17K from 1st salary increment. I loved this phone. It was very special to me.

Moral of the story : Don't mess with "chakka" people on signal

How ? Well, in morning while i was in auto heading towards office, a "chakka" appeared out of no where at signal. I gave him 50p coin. Auto was about to start and then he literally did throw that 50p coin on my face and spoke something. Above incidence happened the same evening :mrgreen:

Since then i am very generous to "chakka's" on signal

noob said:
Moral of the story : Don't mess with "chakka" people on signal

How ? Well, in morning while i was in auto heading towards office, a "chakka" appeared out of no where at signal. I gave him 50p coin. Auto was about to start and then he literally did throw that 50p coin on my face and spoke something. Above incidence happened the same evening Since then i am very generous to "chakka's" on signal

Sorry dude! But do you believe in these things?
If that was really the case I know many instances where these people were not entertained by giving the money these people demanded but that doesn't mean the people got a curse for that.

N

This thread reminds me of my Nokia 5320 XM which got stolen just after few months of buying it. I didn't even hack it man and it was gone! Hope the bast*** who stole it is dead by now! Hmm. Sad times come and go for everybody.

N

ajayritik said:
Sorry dude! But do you believe in these things?
If that was really the case I know many instances where these people were not entertained by giving the money these people demanded but that doesn't mean the people got a curse for that.

he he..no man...but that was a good coincidence P

@MODS : Can you rename this thread as [OFFICIAL] How i lost my phone !! ?

noob said:
@MODS : Can you rename this thread as [OFFICIAL] How i lost my phone !! ?

Agreed, gone through all the posts and I feel for the buddy that lost his mobile.
Me being from small city never experienced such things. My friend lost his mobile though in a bus, he told me that it dissapeared from front pocket while entering a bus in Delhi. He checked afterwards! It was a Nokia 5800 Xpress, he was so frustuated.

^we are responsible for protecting our belongings from thieves...can't blame it on them(thieves) whose only job is stealing

^ Most of the steal happens during entering or leaving the bus. Cause that's where people are most distracted.