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How Not to Steal a Sidekick
timmit was one of many readers to point out the story of a stolen Sidekick, writing with this excerpt from the site: ""When my friend realized that she had left the Sidekick in the taxi she asked me to immediately send a message to the phone saying that we would give a reward for the phone. There was no response. After a day of waiting, she had to go to the store and spend over $300 on a new Sidekick. When she put her SIM card in, she saw that the person(s) that had taken the phone had not only signed on to AOL leaving their name and password in the phone, but they had taken pictures of themselves." I can sympathize, after someone with the address Rmluckyguy@aol.com tried to sell me back the Visor Deluxe stolen from my car last year in Philadelphia. I hope Evan has better luck.
UPDATE #2: Some people are asking how we have their pics and AOL name. The way a Sidekick works, is that when you use it, all the data on it get's uploaded automatically to the T-Mobile server. So pictures you have taken, AOL names and passwords u have used, etc are all on the server. So when my friend turned on her new Sidekick and put her new SIM card in, all the data downloaded on to her phone. And that's how we have everything.
Now, that's a great thing so you really don't lose anything....but with alot of information been getting, um, lost lately in the media news, I dont know if I like things like that located centrally somewhere. If I lose something like that, I perfer it to all be lost and I have to start from scratch. Just like a hacked server. You don't just do backup restores, you reload from scratch.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
It's still up now... *blink*
--
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
June 6th, 2006: The people in the pictures below have my friend's T-Mobile Sidekick. Instead of doing the honorable thing when finding someone's phone in a taxi, they instead kept it.
I have found 8 cell phones in the last couple years in taxis. EVERY single one I have contacted the owner (by leaving a message on their voice mail or by answering their phone and telling their friends that I have the phone) and returned it promptly. When people have found my phone, they have also in turn returned it.
When my friend realized that she had left the Sidekick in the taxi she asked me to immediately send a message to the phone saying that we would give a reward for the phone. There was no response. After a day of waiting, she had to go to the store and spend over $300 on a new Sidekick. When she put her SIM card in, she saw that the person(s) that had taken the phone had not only signed on to AOL leaving their name and password in the phone, but they had taken pictures of themselves.
I immediately contacted the AOL name: Sashacristal8905 and requested that the Sidekick be returned. I was immediately told that my "white ass" didn't deserve it back. That she was not a "white bitch" (my friend who is a blonde white girl had pics on the phone this person had obviously seen) stupid enough to return a phone she found. After lots of threats, she said she and her boy would wait for me at:
Sashacristal8905: i got ball this is my adress 108 20 37 av corona come n do it iam give u the sidekick so I can hit you wit it
So, anyways..this is my story. If you happen to know these people in the picture please let me know at: stolensidekick@gmail.com I am not going to go to the address posted above, because a.) Not going to waste my time going to a probable fake address b.) If it is real, there will be a physical altercation and I would probably wind up arrested which would do no good to anyone. I'd rather just embarrass the thief as much as possible. Teach them a lesson on the etiquette of returning peoples lost belongings.
UPDATE #1: Thanx to some cyberwork of friends, found out they have a Myspace acct: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=us er.viewprofile&friendID=78722066
UPDATE #2: Some people are asking how we have their pics and AOL name. The way a Sidekick works, is that when you use it, all the data on it get's uploaded automatically to the T-Mobile server. So pictures you have taken, AOL names and passwords u have used, etc are all on the server. So when my friend turned on her new Sidekick and put her new SIM card in, all the data downloaded on to her phone. And that's how we have everything.
Some people also suggested this may be a ploy of some kind. If you notice, there are NO ads on this website. There are NO outside links besides the one to their MySpace page. I am only doing this to bring embarrassment to people who have no moral value in this world.
UPDATE #3: More questions answered. My friend left her Sidekick II in a taxi inManhattan (where we live). The person(s) that took it live in Corona Queens which is part of NYC. As for contacting the police, a NYPD officer has contacted me already (he found this link on a blog) and informed me how to handle this situation. My friend and I will stop by a police station tomorrow with the receipt and serial. Another friend at T-Mobile has already gotten us the records we need to prove that these people took the phone as well as the numbers that they called with it. Right now, I am more concerned about spreading this story. I want people to realize that what goes around, comes around. If you find a phone in a taxi or elsewhere.. it is NOT yours.. return it....and when u lose an item, then the same will happen for u.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
Yes. Theft of lost property is usually called "theft by unlawful taking".
Check out the MySpace account they found:
s er.viewprofile&friendID=78722066
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=u
The goggles they do nothing etc. Worst site I have seen in a while.
More seriously, it erodes your belief in the basic goodness of people, and hardens your attitude to certain classes of people, when you see such poor specimens of human beings as these.
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
I'm a dummy about GSM devices, but if she'd used her own SIM, to use the device it wouldn't have uploaded to the "wrong" account. Am I wrong here? If I'm not, then someone knew they were using minutes they didn't own.
You obviously didn't peruse the rest of the guy's site.
Not returning something when you know it doesn't belong to you, and additionally using the phone service that someone else paid for is theft. If I find a bike laying in the street and I pick it up and walk off with it, even though there's a kid yelling and chasing me and saying that it's his and he just left it there for a minute, then yeah, I just stole his bike.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
If you RTFA, you'd see that there are no ads and that there is no PayPal link, and that the author claims that he doesn't want to set one up.
It would appear that the author is not motivated by money, at least not yet.
IANAL, but the law makes a distinction between lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, which happens to have a convenient wikipedia entry. Stuff like this is obviously difficult to enforce, but generally you can only walk off with something you find if it's readily apparent that its owner had no intention of ever recovering it. Car pushed into river = abandoned. Phone left in taxi = not abandoned.
They FOUND the phone. They aren't guilty of a crime.
Guess again. Since they know whose it is, they have a legal duty to surrender the property to its rightful owner.
So, what exactly are the police supposed to do about it?
They're supposed to restore the property to its owner, and possibly arrest the person who "found" it, if she refuses to give it up.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Also check out Article 121, 127, and 128, under all of which he can be charged.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
>They FOUND the phone. They aren't guilty of a crime.
once they used the phone in a manner the owner wouldn't approve of (ie not used in a attempt to return it) they were then commiting a crime of theft.
The actus reus of theft is usually defined as an unauthorised taking, keeping or using of another's property which must be accompanied by a mens rea of dishonesty and/or the intent to permanently deprive the owner or the person with rightful possession of that property or its use.
some of the above comment was stolen from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft
If you read the page, the NYPD told him to bring the receipt and a serial number to the precinct and fill out a report. Apparently they believe it is a crime.
cat
Already three forums have been overflowed by the traffic. I made a Google Group that definitely can handle the load:
http://groups.google.com/group/stolensidekick
Please mod up so people will become aware of this. I've already sent Evan an e-mail.
New York State Consolidated Laws ... ... ... ... ... ...
TITLE J
OFFENSES INVOLVING THEFT
ARTICLE 155
LARCENY
S 155.00 Larceny; definitions of terms.
The following definitions are applicable to this title:
7-c. "Access device" means any telephone calling card number, credit
card number, account number, mobile identification number, electronic
serial number or personal identification number that can be used to
obtain telephone service.
S 155.05 Larceny; defined.
1. A person steals property and commits larceny when, with intent to
deprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself or to
a third person, he wrongfully takes, obtains or withholds such property
from an owner thereof.
2. Larceny includes a wrongful taking, obtaining or withholding of
another`s property, with the intent prescribed in subdivision one of
this section, committed in any of the following ways:
(b) By acquiring lost property.
A person acquires lost property when he exercises control over
property of another which he knows to have been lost or mislaid, or to
have been delivered under a mistake as to the identity of the recipient
or the nature or amount of the property, without taking reasonable
measures to return such property to the owner;
S 155.30 Grand larceny in the fourth degree.
A person is guilty of grand larceny in the fourth degree when he
steals property and when:
1. The value of the property exceeds one thousand dollars; or
10. The property consists of an access device which the person intends
to use unlawfully to obtain telephone service.
Grand larceny in the fourth degree is a class E felony.
The dollar would be "lost" because the person who found it has absolutely no reasonable way to return it to its owner. A sidekick, or other similar device, is another story. Upon turning it on and finding that it has service, it's obvious that someone, somewhere is paying for it. That someone is not you. At that point, the reasonable thing to do is to hand it to the cabbie and say "someone left this back here." By taking it and using it, you are not only stealing their wireless services (by knowingly using a service you know you're not paying for), you are also retaining possession of an item that you know belongs to someone else. That's called possession of stolen goods, which actually is a crime (whether you're the person who stole it or not).
http://publicvoidlife.blogspot.com
Then read it again. It is not the SK card, it is the T-Mobile remote respository that is tied to the account.
"Some people are asking how we have their pics and AOL name. The way a Sidekick works, is that when you use it, all the data on it get's uploaded automatically to the T-Mobile server. So pictures you have taken, AOL names and passwords u have used, etc are all on the server. So when my friend turned on her new Sidekick and put her new SIM card in, all the data downloaded on to her phone. And that's how we have everything. "
So there, I read the article for and explained it you. Now delete your slashdot account, you got not cred as a technologist, and should'nt use anything more advanced than a crayon.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
they're not his photos
In what way are they not his? They were taken with his camera, uploaded to his account via his subscription. There's an old saying that possession is 9/10ths of the law, and at no point were these photos not in his possession. The camera was not in his possession, though it still belonged to him. But at no point were the photos, which are not physical objects, taken by or stored in any device not owned by him. They are his.
I, ANAL
http://publicvoidlife.blogspot.com
Not just that, but at the time of getting shot by the paintball, you have no reasonable explaination that it ISN'T a paintball gun.
With the adrenalin flowing you just feel impact, and then the wet dye, prompting you to think you had been just shot with a real gun.
Live forever, or die trying.
Common law is that the finder of a lost item could claim the right to possess the item against any other person in the world except the true owner. If I find a phone on the street, it is mine unless someone who can prove ownership asks me for it. I am not obliged to look for them, and I am not obliged to return it in the absense of proof of their ownership.
They found a phone and got an SMS from a third party advising them that there was a reward for its return. Then they got a message via AOL asking for them to come return it. I highly doubt that ANY of this would hold up in court. There's no proof of identity or proof of ownership inherent in either of these that would compel the finder to act.
The cops asked them to come down with evidence of ownership. When the evidence is present, and all parties are present, at that time, if they are asked to return the phone and do not, THEN they are guity of a crime. But until then, they're no more obliged to go out of their way to meet the woman who lost the phone than they would be if I were to send them a message and ask them to come give me the phone.
I would imagine this is why the cops asked them to bring the reciept and contact information of the person who found it down.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
... there's the whole issue of theft of service. Even if we grant them a "finders keepers" waiver for the physical phone, the use of the phone subscription is a separate offense.
Those pictures and that password are stored in the phone or on the SIM card in the phone she lost.
Well, on my phone there is the option of storing information in three places and IIRC you can set the default location as well. Those three places are:
1) Phone's internal memory
2) SIM Card
3) "My Online Album"
I think another poster here (and I think the author of the "revenge page") explained as much. The wireless service provider has central storage servers for its subscribers (given they pay the approriate fee or sign up on certain plans). On the upside, you can access the data from your "online album" from your PC's web browser, there is more capacity than available on the device and SIM card, and your data is not lost if you lose your phone. OTOH, you lose all your privacy...if a phone company will turn over phone records to busybody G-Men without a warrant you can bet they'll turn over address books, pics, videos, etc. at the drop of a hat as well.
The guy who said I should not have called 911 IS a moron. He's potentially making people less likely to call 911 in the future. You must understand that people who make other people less safe out of their ignorance should not be treated lightly, hence the "moron." As well, I hope you are not likening me chasing down someone who stole my cell phone and tried to run me over with a car to someone who would pull someone over for going 5 MPH over the limit. Cause that would make you a moron.