Some butt hole stole my brand new phone.... yes the very same phone I was gushing about a few posts ago. It was stolen out of the women's restroom at my place of work within a 5-10 minute time period. I went to the bathroom, sent my boyfriend a text, set the phone on the shelf above the toilet paper holder and left it when I went back to work. I went back after I realized it wasn't in my pocket and it had vanished.
After confirming that no one had turned it in and a few minutes of panic, I called Jake and told him what happened. I then had to finish my shift, which took about an hour. I came home at 10:15pm frustrated and helpless. What could I do? The person who took it deserved to be punched in the head, but I had no idea who she was. I was angry enough to throw a full fledged hissy fit, but I had no one to scream at. I know it's just a phone, but it's the principal of the thing! Don't steal from people! Most certainly not from people who can't afford to replace what you take! You're a bad person, Ms. Phone Stealer. Ok, now that that's out of my system, here's the fun part.
My very very smartphone has gps capabilities. And the very very smart people at Google have invented this fun, free app called Latitude. You and your other smartphone carrying friends can view each other's location on Google Maps, accurate to within a few yards. My very very smart Geek Squad boyfriend, Jake, has an iPhone... and he immediately knew what to do when I called him. He logged on to latitude and starting watching the blue dot on the map that indicated my phone's location.
He watched the dot on the map sit in the restaurant's location for about 2 hours. I had only been home for about ten minutes when the dot moved at 10:30pm. It was now hovering over a shady part of town, which is no surprise. It moved again to a vague spot on a road still in town. Then it moved to rest on an apartment complex about 10 minutes away from us, where it stayed for a while.
I was just angry enough to go around knocking on doors at 11pm, but since that wasn't the best idea in this particular apartment complex, we called the police department and they sent an officer over to discuss our options. He told us that there was nothing he could do, since we didn't know what apartment it was in, and suggested we take our story to the detectives, who are allowed to lurk about and ask questions. Although they wouldn't be back on duty until 8am the next day.
The signal from my gps didn't update again, but it stayed in one spot long enough for the detectives I spoke to the next morning to seem very interested. I guess cops like taking cases where most of the work is done for them. At a bright and squirelly 10am I walked into the Police Station and gave every piece of information I had to 2 detectives, one of which (coincidentally enough) works security at Ms. Phone Stealer's apartment complex. He didn't seem too familiar with the building indicated by the gps, but he said he had enough to go on. Fingers crossed and hopes high, I left the Police Station and tried to think positive thoughts. I was leaving the mystery up to more capable people than myself.
I dropped by Best Buy to update Jake on what had happened, and told him to keep an eye on his phone, because I had given his phone number to the detectives. I then dropped by the restaurant I work at and told the manager there (who hadn't yet heard about the previous night's drama) what had happened and gave him Jake's phone number in case someone brought my phone back. Restless and anxious, I returned home to read some 1984 for my other blog, but ended up taking a nap, since I only slept for 3 hours the night before.
I started awake at the sound of someone knocking forcefully on the door. I opened it to find Jake, smiling and smug, obviously too flustered to bother digging out his keys. As soon as he saw me, he said
"Get your purse, they've got your phone at [my place of work]."
I was shocked and excited, and as I rushed to put shoes on, I got the story out of him.
"They called me at 4:oo and said that the phone's location had been updated, and it showed up at the restaurant. The detective called the managers and discovered that an employee had turned it in, saying she found it in the one-room employee bathroom (a lie) and that she had intended to turn it in the night before, but never got a chance (another lie)."
In fact, I had seen this girl walking in to the bathroom as I walked out after leaving my phone, and she was the first person I asked when I realized it was missing. She lied to my face twice when I asked if she had seen it or if she saw anyone take it. I was surprised to find out it was a coworker, and pretty bummed that I would now have to press charges against someone I know, but I was no less angry at her.
Jake and I met the detective in front of our apartment complex office and he gave me my phone and explained how they found it. She had, in fact, taken the phone back to work to turn in (probably because she couldn't figure out how to use it), but after lying to the managers and the police, AND taking my 16gb micro sd card (with all 10,000 pictures of my cats and my progress on Angry Birds, fml), I have no sympathy for her. She had multiple opportunities to fess up and avoid serious trouble, but she missed her chance.
I am so incredibly relieved to have my phone back. Thanks to Jake's quick thinking geekiness, my dear smartphone is once again in my possession. And you can bet your butt that I won't be leaving it anywhere but my hand, purse or apartment for the rest of its life.
Hooray for happy endings!!!!
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