OT - VENT!

[Griff]

Someone just stole my cell phone. Andriod with a number of bells and whistles. Got it shut off, so no problem there, except my stuff is in it! Replacement is in the mail... ready to go. But I'm a few days from the house, and know that several of my friends will call, get that recorded message, "the number you've reached is out of service" and wonder what the heck is going on. This is the first time in about 17 years I've not had a cell. Always got the "anytime... any call" type of plan, and get the bill paid promptly.

Why is it that folks just seem so ready to steal. Ok, it was obviously a "crime of opportunity", as I set it aside in the bathroom stall, (didn't want it falling from my pants pocket and breaking), then stepped to the wash basin, and out the door... patted my pockets, and thought... "PHONE"! Walked back in and viola, gone in not more'n 2I minutes. Ain't any big deal... but here's someone that seems to be just lurking around, waiting to snap up a item, that's fairly personal, (who cares about my contacts and stuff)... since once it's turned off, without access & reported as stolen the sim card can't be re-issued, so just why? Manager told me it happens about once a month. Are there REALLY that many thieves? I'd really like to drive my fist thru something right now! Like their cheek!

Got a pre-paid cell as who knows what'll happen on the road while I get home? Just plain axed aggravating.

Ya know what frosts me, is that I'd worked on a trailer (didn't belong to me) for about an hour this morning. Not a big deal, just needed a small repair, no problem, $10 worth of parts. I get reimbursed for the parts, but the hour is on me... no problem, why should I let a little problem turn into a big one; especially since I just drop the trailer and someone else will get it. Oh yea, I pick up trailers all the time that someone else has dropped with a small problem... that's what'd happened with this one, but I don't feel the need to pass that along to the next person.

Sorry to vent at you guys, but I just somehow think that ya'll are just the type to understand the aggravation. Hey, just typing that out makes me feel better!

[J Miller]

Griff,

I'm of the opinion that thieves are in some way defective. Either the way they were raised or mentally. I despise them.
Hopefully the scum that lifted your phone won't be able to access your information and do anything with it.


Joe

[pwl44m]

I feel for Ya Griff, My Wife left Hers on a Break Bench. Not even 5 miutes and it was gone. It was behind a Mall. had to be Employee of any one of many stores in the Mall as it is not a place where general Public goes.
Too bad it is not a Toaster Sorry
Perry

[2ndovc]

People suck!

Oldest stepson is hadnicapped. He has a part time job doing assembly type work.
One day some slimeball stole his iTouch when he got up to go get something.

The management fired the kid that took it. He wouldn't return it. Filed a police report, blah blah.

Poor guy was so heart broken that I took him out a couple days later and bought him a new one.
But what kind of loser would seal from a handicapped kid? I wanted to break his knee caps but
What good would that do?

The company did kick in some money towards the new iTouch. I thought that was nice thing to do. They love the little guy!

Can't leave anything sitting around anymore!

jb

[damienph]

People suck!

But what kind of loser would steal from a handicapped kid? I wanted to break his knee caps but
What good would that do? jb

Well, it would make you feel better and make others think twice about stealing stuff from your son.

[Blaine]

[Pitchy]

Lets all gather somewhere and heck with the world.

[w30wcf]

Griff,
Sorry to hear about your cell phone. I kinda know how you feel. About a month ago, someone took my very good camera without my permission. My wife and I had gone to a national park and we watched a short movie about the region. I had set my camera on the seat beside me and forgot to pick it up when we left .

About 10 minutes later I realized what I had done and went back only to find the camera gone. I checked with the office which was just across from the theater hoping that someone had turned it in.....nope. I left my name and phone number, just in case......

I was feeling pretty stupid by that time and felt like kicking myself in the butt. Then I thought.....my name and address is on the camera so perhaps whoever found it will mail it to me just like I or any of the fine folks on this forum would have done. Well....that was being overly optimistic.......

I know that there are some folks that are pretty hard up and to keep me calmer about the incident, I imagined that whomever picked it up was able to trade it for something to help their family get by. Hopefully, that is the case, but that is probably optimistic as well.

w30wcf

[olyinaz]

It's been a problem forever and I usually lay it on bad upbringing. Heck, in some social circles in the U.S. the parents actually TEACH the kids to steal.

Oly

[gak]

Griff, I feel for you. It really rankles me the notion that anyone would consider it ok to take/possess anything--especially not a life 'r death item--that is not rightfully theirs. I've never had lots of money but neither have I been long term/chronically dirt poor during my adult life, so I can't relate to either extreme. But I have been without means more than I care to remember and it's never ever crossed my mind that I should (actually) have another's possession. It's a lack of character born of extremely poor or absent guidance in the formative years--apathetic orabusive upbringing as Oly suggests. I have known people who have been in or from extreme poverty who have not been that way, that'd give you the shirt off their back when it's the only one they have, so it's not necessarily "simply" economics.

[Pisgah]

Thieves? Well, there are at least 535 in the Capitol alone...

[damienph]

Lets all gather somewhere and heck with the world.

I could be a part of that!

[Ben_Rumson]

Sorry to hear this Griff, it sucks...
There are scum that walk this earth that think if you are stupid enough (not you Griff ) to leave something unattended, then you deserve to have it taken, and they will do so, just on that "principal" alone... Possibly the worst of the ilk are the ones that think they are entitled to your cash if you are so foolhardy as to allow it just to be seen...Not flashed around in a big wad... Just to be seen..

[Dave]

I don't blame you for being mad. Earlier this year someone stole my wife's phone. It is aggravating. Around here a lot of folks seem to think if you could steal something but you don't, you're a sucker. There are still a lot of good folks out there but plenty of not so good. The Lord takes away everything you steal so they won't really profit from taking your phone.

[kimwcook]

So sorry to hear that, Griff. You being a past LEO you know the world isn't a nice place. And, I understand you writing what you're feeling. I totally hear you. Mopes are mopes are mopes. And, before anyone says the world is getting worse I don't think so. I think they're cycles, but the worlds been a nasty place since the beginning of time. I can't stand a true criminal, that's why I do what I do and I'm sure that's why you did it too. Again, sorry.

[C. Cash]

Hate to hear Griff....makes me angry as well that it happened to you.

[BC in TN]

Lets all gather somewhere and heck with the world.

Pitchy,

I know you already know: Someday we will!

Griff - I hate that your phone was stolen.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Sorry Griff. That just SUX !!

OK, we are all meeting at Pitchy`s house in the morning. Bring plenty of ammo!

[rjohns94]

bummers, will you retain your old # with the new phone?

[Griff]

bummers, will you retain your old # with the new phone?

Yep, should be at the house when I get there. Only positive note, is I have a new "Otterbox" protector waiting at the house to replace the damaged one that was on the phone. Manager there told me that happens at least once a month. Same scenario. Only reason it wasn't on my belt holster was that I was still in my coveralls from working on that trailer. Just stuck it in my pocket so I wouldn't miss a possible call regarding a load for a friend I was trying to help! Otherwise, I'd have left it in my truck! No good deed goes unpunished!

Taking a week off. Gotta load ammo and get ready for a match next Sat/Sun... SASS Wild Bunch, 1911, levergun and 1897 Trench Gun... It's the TX State Championship!!! My only 2nd WB match... Oughta be a train wreck! I'll be thinking of the guy that stole my phone! Maybe it'll help me stay focused on the targets!!!

Kim, yep. So true, mopes will always be mopes.

[Borregos]

Sorry to hear that Griff.
There is no accounting for people, we have a trophy shelf at one club I belong to, we ended up having to screw the trophies to the wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy the Wild Bunch match

[kimwcook]

Too bad a person couldn't download an app that would turn the phone into a charged taser at the same time it wiped the old phone clean of data. Then when the thief next touched the phone he'd get burnt fingers and a short dirt nap. Might think twice about grabbing another phone.

[pokey]

No good deed goes unpunished!

so true.

Too bad a person couldn't download an app that would turn the phone into a charged taser

or a claymore.

stealing stuff seems to be assumed "normal".
at work,if a mechanic will occasionally leave a tool in/on my truck
after a repair, or a tech will leave a tool/meter at a job site.
i will go find them and return their stuff, the looks i get are
"funny", like why didn't you just keep it? i don't try and explain,
just shake my head and walk away. normal? not for me.

[mikld]

OK, I'll be the odd man out. Now I have no patience with a real theif, one who premeditates a theft, but there are other circumstances too. I grew up in the ghetto and remember a lot of times I "had not". So, what if someone who couldn't afford one of those new-whiz-bang, all the bells and whistles cell phones just happened to see one left in a men's room stall? OOH!, look what I found!, and picked it up automatically. Now I know there is no excuse for keeping someone's stuff in a situation like this, but I can understand why someone would pick it up. It is an object that he cannot afford, not a person's belonging. This opinion may sound wussy, but it's just another side of the discussion...

[jjames]

Bummer, but on the other side of the coin, last year my friend left his camera in a golf cart the day we took a break from deer hunting in Montana. He called the course the next day and someone had turned it in at the Pro Shop. I hold certain regions of our country are more honest than others. Unfortunately I am don't live in one of them yet.

[Ysabel Kid]

Sorry to hear this Griff. Like Joe, I dispise thieves of any kind...