My Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos of 9 months was stolen last week from my jeans pocket in a crowded bus in Bangalore.
Modus Operandi - The person standing in front of you acts as if he will get down. But he doesn't. So you panic and try to push your way through the door. That's the moment when your phone is flicked.
2 seconds of negligence and I realised that I lost it.
Steps Taken:
1. Called Vodafone. Blocked all Outgoing facilities (including 2G).
2. Went to Police Station and was presented with two options:
a) Lodge FIR - If phone is found in whatever state, it will sent to police custody and a case would be lodged in the court of that state/city. You need to appoint a lawyer to fight your case and get your phone back, after providing all legal documents. Expected expense - 10k.
b) Lodge a Missing Complaint - You need to submit an application to the SI of the Police Station that your phone was in the pocket when you boarded the bus. After getting down from the bus, you realised that the phone was not in the pocket and it was missing. You cannot use the word "Stolen" here. Along with this application, you need to provide a photocopy of the bill and the IMEI number. The IMEI number would be shared with all the mobile operators of the state (not other states). If the phone is found to be used with some operator, it can be traced and found. Chances / History states as 50-50% chances of recovery.
I decided to go with Option B. Since I purchased the Grand at 18k, about 9 months back, spending 10k + Misc expenses would fetch me another new Grand. The condition of the recovered mobile would be unknown too.
3. Sent an email to WhatsApp, to De-activate my account. Default deactivation is for 45 days, within which if account is not re-activated, it would be deleted.
4. Changed the password for GMail, Facebook and Team-BHP. Set up 2 step authentication for GMail (Google products). It would send a verification code to your registered number each time you login to Google. Set the number to my wife's phone number.
5. Went to Vodafone store on the next working day, with a photocopy of my id proof (PAN Card). Got a duplicate SIM free of cost. Services activated after 3 hours.
6. Sent another email to WhatsApp to re-activate account. Done immediately.
My phone was neither pattern locked or numeric locked. It was a simple swipe.
What I lost in my old phone ?
1. 16GB Class 10 Micro SD Card (approx 1000INR).
2. Contacts (I had not saved on SIM, but on Phone) - Partially retrieved by a public post on Facebook.
3. My kid's memories of 1st walking. Pics and Videos of him walking for the first time, with support. I had the data backed up last on 25th Jan. I lost the phone on 8th Feb. So all the pictures and videos taken during this period were lost. A few of them recovered since I had sent them to my wife via WhatsApp. So it was found on her phone, but low resolution.
What Next ?
- I am back to my 3 year old and humble Nokia C7-00 running on Symbian Series 60 OS.
- Thankfully Nokia now supports WhatsApp, atleast I am feeling somewhat okayish. Rest of the apps are all junk, when compared to Android.
- I was planning to upgrade my wife's mobile from Samsung Galaxy Ace to Note 3. Now, that is on hold too.
- I am not immediately looking at buying another phone, atleast for 6 months.
- My next phone would be a Samsung Grand or a Sony Xperia C. My budget is 15k +/- 1k.
- No Grand 2 or Nexus or anything. Unwantedly expensive and out of my budget. I am a standard user of FB, GMail, WhatsApp and Team-BHP apps. I don't play games. But yes, I like clicking pictures with the mobile cam. So Grand fits all the checks.
- Install Android Device Manager and other tracking apps on my next device. If there is a repeat I'll make no stones unturned to track the phone and thrash the culprit.
This post is just for reading and helping others incase of lost/stolen scenario. And I am writing it with much pain and despair. :(