Bleh

Well guys...this has seriously not been a good couple weeks. As some of you know (if you follow my personal facebook) my phone was stolen from the checkout counter at Wal Mart yesterday. The woman who stole it lives in the neighborhood across from the store (thank God for cell phone tower tracking...she thought she was safe just turning off the GPS). Unfortunately the cell phone tower tracking resolution is about .8 miles...at best. Luckily though, the woman is pretty well known to everyone at the Wal Mart, along with the convenience store across the street. She's even very familiar to me...probably from seeing her shopping regularly...and appears to always be on foot (no vehicle), so it's only a matter of time before she's caught.

The problem is, my phone has all of my order information on file (she wouldn't know how to access it...but the problem is I can't either)...as well as a number of other things that are necessary for me in my work, that don't back themselves up regularly. This doesn't even include all of my personal pictures, pictures of my kids, running conversations with friends, customers, and family...etc. Because of this I'm going to try to recover my phone this week before just turning it in for the insurance fee (I spent all day talking to apartment complexes, local stores, and the two schools in the neighborhood...the stores and one of the schools knew her, but of course not by name) . Tomorrow I'll be putting out flyers with pictures of her and her daughter, and a reward equal to the cost of the insurance fee to replace the phone. I'll still be getting some work done in the evenings, but things are going to slow down just a bit. I hope you all can understand.

The pictures below are of the woman and her (assumed) daughter as they were leaving the store. The (sadly) funny thing is, I was at the ice machine between those two pictures, and actually moved my cart out of their way politely so they could pass, saying 'excuse me' as they went through. They knew full well the phone was mine, as they were directly in line behind us at the checkout stand.

People these days honestly just disgust me.

 

This burns me.

So sorry and pissed at the same time.

 

A pox upon her sorry arse!

 

Women!!

I kid,I kid.

 

Soooo...

Mission accomplished.

I made up flyers this morning and printed them out at FedEx/Kinko's. I turned them in at school offices in her neighborhood, the local grocery and convenience stores, and posted them on dozens of light poles in her area. Sure enough, the school called this afternoon saying they found her and had both notified the police and contacted her. She told them she was going to return the phone. 30 minutes later she called me from my phone and I went and retrieved it.

I guess the moral of the story should be something about persistence and determination paying off, but honestly folks, I can't help but think its best just to pay better attention to where you set your phone :|.



I had initially decided not to press charges. Unfortunately for her however, she removed the SD card without dismounting it, which screwed up half a dozen apps (including my timecard app which helps me determine when/if I can lower and/or maintain pricing for you all)....and lost me hundreds of pictures.

Guess we go through the song and dance anyhow. At least I got it back though...and work can proceed as usual tomorrow!

 

we had something like this just happen here,... and it was an adult lady taking a young teenagers phone,... you see the kid on camera forget it, she picks it up, the kid comes in asks everyone there if they seen it including her, and is so broke when he leave empty handed, they caught here soon after, and the papers ripped her a new one.

I have the same rule with my phone that I do with my pens,

Hand Pocket, Hand Pocket, Hand Pocket... I never set them down unless im at home, or sitting at my desk at work

 

Good news indeed!

 

Great result, just a shame you lost some pics. I had an SD card corrupt a few months ago and a friend of a friend was able to retrieve the data off it, guess he has special software or something, might be worth asking about if the pics have sentimental value.

 

I am glad you recovered your phone brother

 

Glad you got your phone back. Good job taking it to the streets.

 

Glad this got at least partially resolved.

As with your laptop/desktop, take backups often, and lock it down with a strong password.

 

I suppose LG doesn't have a similar free backing up arrangement to Apple's iCloud for iPhones? Aren't there other comparable LG backup services? iCloud works pretty well for me, using a very secure password to deter hackers (so they don't find any of my nude photos? Eeew!)

 

Glad everything worked out, brother Cris. PS: Beware of "clouds" there is no such thing as a safe one.

 

Nice! I'm glad you got the phone.
I'm also surprised she was the one to call you up. That's ballsy. "yeah I stole your phone, I guess you want it back??"

Maybe the public shaming did some good.

 

Larry, ahhh maybe you want to change your password again . Looking good though. Chris, glad you got the phone back. I would have trouble functioning without mine.

 

Not to worry, Mike. If voyeurs want to hack in and gaze at my naked brisket photos, then more power to those perverts. (The relatively better adjusted hackers should be sated with the subsequent corned beef and pastrami photos.)

 

I'm so glad to hear this, Cris. Much better than not having the phone back at all. And maybe the ...woman learned something from this. Its no picnic having your child publicly associated with your own (her) criminal behavoure.
- Kim

 

Where is Cris?

 

Wondering the same. He was very decent at keeping in touch until the phone thing, and now he's off the radar again. Last thing I saw was some family stuff on his Instagram 3 days ago.