If your phone gets stolen....

[deltaforce]

We have a ton of threads where unfortunate folks have reported stolen phones. The suggestions thereafter vary from, what they should have done to what they should do. One being, report to the cops.

My question is, if you report to the cops, what documents do you need? I bought my HTC One X and Motorola Droid Razr in India so I have original boxes but not the receipts (proof of purchase, if you would like to call it that way). Will that be a deal breaker?

Not that I am planning to get my phones stolen but when you are out shopping or something, esp. with a child with special needs, phone is not on your priority list (My iPod was stolen in a grocery store).

I would like to know if anybody has gone this route i.e. reporting to the cops, how do they handle it? This is in NY, if it matters (not NYC).

Thanks in advance.

(Note to Mods - Pls feel free to move this to appropriate section. I wasn't too sure where to post.)

 

[shelliewnj]

I would keep a note of model number and such, that way if it's recovered, they know it's yours. Truth be told, the cops can't do much anyway.

 

[El Presidente]

IMEI number maybe? That way your network can block/track it. As Shellie points out though, there's not much they can do once it's been stolen.

Also moved this to the lounge as it's not app or directly Android related. If you're not ok with that, let me know.

 

[unnamedny]

you can go to police department and make a report if it gets stolen, but noone is going to care. Best thing is to buy insurance.

 

[Speed Daemon]

If you have insurance, you'll need a police report to be able to collect on it. You don't need to bring any documents unless you see someone using your phone, and need to convince a beat cop to arrest the person, or at least take the phone from them. When filing a police report, you should have the make, model, serial number and/or ESN of the phones, and a basic description of each phone and any accessories. If you haven't already had your phone numbers moved to other phones, include that in the report as well.

You may never see that phones again, but then again you might get lucky. If they do recover the phones, you should bring the boxes (I assume they have the serial numbers on the boxes?) as evidence that you had possession of the phones first. That may or may not be enough, but it's a lot better than nothing.

The first thing I'd do is notify my carrier and the police ASAP. You never know, the local police department might have a new gadget to track cellphones, and be looking for a case to try it out on. You'll never know until you try.

If they were in your car when they were taken, check with your auto insurer to see if you can make a claim under your car insurance policy. If you have homeowner's or renter's insurance, check to see if they cover it.

 

[dan330]

get a cloud service for storage like: Dropbox (check out my sig for free extra space for you and me)

create a special folder in that cloud.

then as you get new devices/electronics.. take a pic of the package and device and it's important information.

store it on that folder you created. now you will always have quick access to that info..

you can do same thing for Credit cards and other important passwords.

Dropbox is very secure...

 

[SiempreTuna]

In the UK the first thing the police ask for is the IMEI. I know this from bitter experience

The police didn't ask me for any PoP and the insurance company just wanted details of what had happened and the police report number.

Of course, the irony is that phones are easily traceable but the police - and the networks - can't be arsed (OK, can't afford) to chase each theft up. I did some work for one of the networks and when my boss had his phone nicked, he had the network guys locate it, went to the house (with some imposing looking buddies) and got his phone back.

Can't help thinking that if the police ran a few operations to go around finding all stolen phones and arresting the theives, the theft rate would drop right off.

 

[Hadron]

Actually I had a phone theft in the family a few years ago and the police specifically asked the network not to block for a few hours so they could try to trace the culprit. The clown who took the phone used it to call a number of his friends, who were not best pleased to receive a visit from the authorities.

It may be different if the victim is an adult, but in this case they definitely did act.

 

[Arrowslinger]

DO NOT STORE PRIVATE PHOTOS ON PHONE

I worked in mall security and a lot of lacking in morals officers will pull the sim cards out or look through the phone of phones turned into lost and found. I keep my number on the lock screen just in case it ever winds up in a lost and found section with reward offer.

 

[Speed Daemon]

get a cloud service for storage like: Dropbox (check out my sig for free extra space for you and me)

create a special folder in that cloud.

then as you get new devices/electronics.. take a pic of the package and device and it's important information.

store it on that folder you created. now you will always have quick access to that info..

you can do same thing for Credit cards and other important passwords.

Dropbox is very secure...

Although I'd never ever use someone else's service to save stuff that can make me broke and have my identity stolen, I have gotten in the habit of taking lots of "family photos" of all of my possessions. I take close-ups and in situ photos (the latter being evidence that I have some costly stuff, and didn't sell any of it). Because I never seem to have space for a full time scanner, I just use my multi-megapixel camera to record my documents. On one hand it looks less tidy, on the other it's pretty good evidence that they're real paper documents.

When I had a big problem with getting parking lot dings, I would snap a photo every time I parked, so if I came back and found a dent, I could get a license plate. Like carrying an umbrella, it proved to a great way to ensure that I never needed to use the photos.