BuRR

now what a good idea

ustolemyname??stevieturbo

iTrader: (1)

And of course, someone with a stolen phone is dumb enough to take it to a main dealer to get repaired. Chances are, it will get thrown away, and another stolen one retreived.
Havent phone companies had the ability do de-activate phones by IMEI number for some time now anyway??

Even for de-locking etc, there are hundreds of people with the ability to unlock phones, using software downloaded form the net, and a simple lead which may cost about £15.
It may sound like a good idea, and it may well have some success. But while having a phone stolen, which may cost about £100-300 to replace, isnt quite as annoying as having a car which costs, maybe £10,000-£30,000 to replace stolen.

In my opinion, mobile phone theft is just small fry stuff. I am not making a dig at you Burr, but those in Government should be spending the money on more worth while schemes, as Im sure you would agree. Violent crimes, Burglaries, Car crime etc are more important to most people. A Phone is quite isignificant really, in the overall scheme of things.

BuRR

You forget that we have 20-30 personal robberies each weekend in West Yorkshire that result in people get injured (mostly kids) for their mobile phones????

How the hell is robbery small fry?

Katana

Look at the name properly.

Echo

Maybe they start off nicking phones then move on up to cars? Maybe there is a connection (no pun intended)?

:-)

Mike

BuRR

At the end of the day, a robbery (theft with violence) is a priority crime. More often than not these phones are stolen with a threat from a weapon of some kind.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Well it gets my support, well done BuRR

Sal

Katana

Finally, someone gets it.

ustolemyname??stevieturbo

iTrader: (1)

I take your point about the robbery bit then. 20-30 is also quite a lot.
BUT....There are a lot more than 20-30 cars stolen, in the Greater Belfast area alone every weekend, the majority of which end up burnt out, after the thieving scum have had their 'fun'
In fact, Last new years eve ( 2001 ) a friend who does recovery, for west belfast ( were an awful lot of stolen cars end up ) recovered 35 cars on that night alone. That was a bad night for car theft, as they let the wee cu*ts out over xmas, but that was only on that night. It does not include cars that were sunsequently recovered over the next few days.

And by recovered, I mean the remains were recovered...very few made it back unburnt.

fatherpierre

But how many of those cars are taken 'from' the owner, with the owner in it with violence used?

Phones are carried by the owner and usually taken by force.

A much more personal and frightening experience than looking out of your window to see your motor gone.

midget1500

i'm with stevieturbo - also living in belfast, i've been carjacked @ gunpoint, had 2 attempted thefts on my current car and both my parents have had their cars stolen in the past (once for a joyride) on a 4 week old car. makes me sick. they are theiving tograg scum and if we choose to defend our property accordingly, guess who'll be punished?

buRR - this isn't a go at you

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

The ability to bar the equipment as well as the sim card has been available for quite a while (pre 1999 when i did the course) but not every mobile company wanted to use it....
It is about time that this was implemented but what you have to look at is if it isnt mobile phones they are taking, what else will they take? [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Tony

BuRR

I think some people need to look at the bigger picture than their shiny cars..... if it comes down to my car or my kid's safety then there's absolutely no choice.

Carjacking - yes - thats another type of robbery.

At the end of the day, there is some level of compensation for a "simple" car theft - ie insurance. I don't think anyone has managed to perfect reincarnation or efficient counselling for dead (in the extreme cases) or frightened kids afraid to go out after a robbery.

The kid wins every time. Sorry.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Sadly it's also possible to change the IMEI number of the phone itself - so blocking the original number won't stop the phone being used. It just needs to be programmed with the number of a legitimate phone.

BuRR

But - that has now become another offence. Arrestable.

zoog

The crucial point here is robbery versus theft. Robbery involves threat or use of violence to deprive the owner of the proerty in question, therefore is far more serious.

BuRR

Thank you, zoog

David Lock

Well I have just taken Chief Inspector BuRR's advice and asked my daughter to tap in for her phone IMEI. How do I find out serial number (is this somewhere inside) and what is recommendation for property marking - do you mean a permanent black marker or one of these fancy pens that reads under UV?

If it was a choice of my car being nicked or my 16 year old being duffed up for her phone there is no contest. Thanks, BuRR. DL

BuRR

The phone's IMEI can be found by pressing the following keys:

*#06#

I would recommend UV pen - and try and mark the phone as much as possible on the inner casing (behind the battery etc) - thus less chance of it rubbing off. also, try and write your postcode and house number on the phone.

Your local police station / crime prevention officer may have other options - such as microdotting it, or smart water....

David Lock

Thanks for that, Burr. The newspaper article in your lead message said Electronic Serial Number "AND" IMEI so I thought they were 2 different things. From what you say they are one and the same. Thanks for swift reply. David. PS. Sorry not into mobiles very much....

BuRR

We don't write the newspaper articles....

robby

A couple of months ago it was publisised that anyone found guilty of pinching a mobile would get a custodial sentence (was it 2 years?), this happened to 1 guy a couple of days later but now it's been forgotten about

Adrian F

The important point is that you catch the people who commit the crimes. It is like cars now we have good alarms they Car Jack instead. once mobiles are no use they will mug the children and anybody else for some thing else of value. the answer is to catch and convict the crimnals who commit these type of crimes.

turbonutter

I may be going into this a little too much but if you property mark your phone with a post code and house number the thief can easily find out where you live. I doubt they would bother but its
just a thought.

BuRR

this is again a chance to catch those people. West Yorks officers are now equipped with small portable UV lights to check for postcoding on items found in the possession of people subject to stop/search on the streets.