“You often hear about phones getting stolen, but I never thought it would happen to me,” Sam Sheffer reports for The Verge. “Earlier this year, my 5S was stolen because I placed it on a bench while I was skating. Stupid me, I know. This time, though, in my second phone theft, my iPhone 6 Plus got taken right out of my back pocket. Unlike my 5S, my 6 Plus has the Find My iPhone app set up properly.”
“That night in the bar, I had it in my back pocket. Someone must have taken it without me noticing. The panic settled in,” Sheffer reports. “My brother immediately pulled out his 6 and called my phone. The call went through, but no one answered. Thankfully, I had Find My iPhone set up on my 6 Plus, so I grabbed the phone from him, went to the App Store, and downloaded the Find My iPhone app.”
“In my 24 years I’ve never been in a fist fight and I’ve never confronted someone in a situation like this before. How do you approach a thief you know for a fact stole your $900 cellphone? What do you say? What do you do?” Sheffer reports. “This is the moment my instincts took over. I didn’t feel fear. I felt confident. I had absolutely no intention of starting a fight. I just wanted my phone back.”
Read the whole saga here.
There are a lot of pieces missing from this tale…..
Seemed like a pretty detailed story to me. What did you think was missing?
How about…..EVERYBODY knows to turn the phone off……for example. Dint you think maybe what the so called “THIEF” said might have been true.
He didn’t turn it off since he wanted the phone to be found.
Maybe he should have given it to the bar manager. NOT!!!
I learned this to be not so trustworthy from first hand experience. Many people might have done the same thing.
You carry a phone in your back pocket? Nuts.
WAAH, that’s blaming the VICTIM!!
Oh wait, it’s a guy, never mind. Carry on!
heh.
Only chicks do that.
The opening line is reminiscent of Dear Penthouse Forum letters of the 70’s.
Dear Penthouse:
I thought I’d never be writing you, but I was at this bar and I had my iPhone in my back pocket, when this attractive woman, mid-twenties and blonde, approached me…I thought she was only ordering a drink, then she bent over, exposing her perky, alabaster breasts, glistening with droplets of sweat from the dance floor for me to ogle. What happened next sent torrents of desire pulsating over my body, the very thought of exploring her Byzantine labyrinth raced through my mind as she deftly placed her hand on my back and slowly slid it down until..until… I could not believe it! She was massaging my ass right there in the bar! Suddenly, she whispered, “I have to powder my nose, don’t you go anywhere, cowboy” and winked seductively. It was only afterwards, sitting through my eleventh beer waiting for her return that I decided to check the time…reaching to my back pocket, the bitch had run-off with my brand new Apple iPhone!
signed,
Phoneless In Philadelphia
(King Melvin’s name withheld by request.)
Thanks for thinking of me botty. Let me fix that story ending…
Suddenly, she whispered, “I have to powder my nose, don’t you go anywhere, cowboy” and winked seductively. After about ten minutes she returned with my iPhone 6 Plus in her hands. She stepped close to me, rubbing up against me and reaching around to slide my iPhone back into my pocket. Then she kissed me teasingly and walked away. I checked my phone and it was packed full of incredibly erotic photos of her. The last photo included her name and phone number. We started dating a few days later and the last year has been one incredible night after another.
She mentioned that some dude named botvinnik had been stalking her. He kept cornering her to talk about how conservative he was, and that everyone else was stupid and was trying to destroy the American way of life. Botvinnik wouldn’t leave, no matter how much she and everyone else around her begged him to move to another state or another country. And that story freaking continues to this day.
Thanks again for the story.
you’re welcome.
..but you should be honest about those naked pictures of your wife..you know, the ones I sold you.
You win the MDN unexpectedly erotic prize. First ever.
Clearly, you missed your calling.
well, thanks..I was going to add, “Oh, oh,” she moaned, as she put her hand on my creamy, white iPhone…but I thought it might expose Melvin to too much ridicule.
Ridicule from you is praise, indeed, botty. You are welcome to try to ridicule me as much as you like. It seems to give you a sense of purpose, and it serves as a frequent reminder of how incredibly puerile you truly are.
I seldom agree with anything you post, except on rare occasions when you post something cogent about Apple or something humorous. And you will never change your mind about anything. So it is a waste of time, really. But go right ahead.
HILARIOUS!!!
Thanks for that laugh.
Carrying your iPhone in your back pocket is about as stupid as carrying your wallet in your back pocket in a crowded bar. You’re just asking for a pickpocket to steal it. This guy’s not very smart. And why the heck did he not have Find My iPhone enabled on his 5S? Or his brother not having Find My iPhone downloaded?
I 2nd both parts.
only thing about the story.. the “thief” may have been telling the truth.. about that he found it.
possible it did fall out of his pocket..
if a pickpocket did steal the iPhone, odds are he wouldn’t just stay in the bar..
What i’m thinking, pickpocket stole iPhone, find my iPhone sound kept playing (or thief realized iPhone was locked, or couldn’t wipe it without password for find my iPhone) and did in fact leave the phone somewhere, and the guy that had it “found” it.. and was in fact waiting for the guy that kept playing the sounds like he said in the article.
My mom lost her iPhone once, I called it about 5 minutes after she realized it was gone. no answer. 2 minutes later her iPhone called me.. the guy found it and was holding it hoping someone would call (he didn’t hear the initial call)
She had find my iPhone set up, we were about to start going down that route when I got the call back.
If the guy was telling the truth in the article, he should have called the brother back.
Granted it’s possible the guy who had it did in fact steal it and was trying to save his ass from an ass kicking. 😉
I never understood people (perhaps you are one) that places a several hundred dollar phone in a back pocket, where it can be easily lifted or perhaps fall out, not to mention damaged if you sit on it because you forgot to remove it… see it all the time.. sure some may not ever have a problem, but it just seems to invite theft, loss or damage..
Personally watched someone sit on one of the Phablet androids… only to pull out a phone that looks like it went through the consumer reports bend test they did..
At a football game, probably 20 people saw it happen and started laughing at the guy.. was hilarious.
But but but Android phones don’t bend… do they?
Every time I see big phones in back pockets, just begging to fall out or be picked off.
One more reason the iPhone 5s size is nice. Fits in front pocket.
FWIW, my iPhone 6+ fits very comfortably in both my pants and shorts front pockets. I’m not even a very big guy, about 5′ 10″.
I’m much shorter. The iPhone Plus completely fits into all my jeans, dress pants/slacks and various types of shorts. The only piece of clothing that it doesn’t completly fit into is an old pair of swimming trunks.
I made a video showing the perfect shirt to wear to carry an iPhone or iPad, so people don’t carry them in their pants
Shirts made by 511 Tactical.
I’d have kicked him in the nuts. Just to honor myself as a veteran. Kicked him real hard.
Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you for your service
It’s natural selection for clueless hipsters. The biggest boneheads are always going to be the predators top choice as victim. As bad as it seems, it’s actually supposed to happen this way
If you find a phone, wallet, purse, jacket, at a bar, give it to the bar tender. I know you can’t trust staff, but it’s better than getting caught with the phone, and if the staff cares about the business, there isn’t enough good will in the world to cover the value gained from showing your customers you care about them. That’s far more valuable than a $900 phone.
In many locations, that’s the law. You need to either leave it be, or deliver it to the management of the location or a police station.
If you find an iPhone someplace public, and want to be a good guy, while remaining safe, you can call the police (don’t use 911) and report that you’ve found it and ask for instructions.
I found a giant Samsung phone in a stairwell where a girl had dropped it. It had to have been a girl because it was cased in a pink rubber panda bear. The screen was matted with wrinkly film and the entire unit was greasy with makeup. Battery, dead as a doornail.
As per building protocol, I turned it in to a security guard. I wasn’t worried that he would steal the thing.
no, that belonged to Melvin.
Had a similar situation last year. Only it wasn’t my phone, it was my stepdaughter’s. I’m in North Carolina, she was in Sacremento. She called us on her boyfriend’s phone and the chase was on. For about 6 hours we tracked the phone and gave them directions on where to go to find it. It went all over the place, and they were always a step behind the thief. They got close several times, seemingly being in the same place at the same time. They kept seeing the same car with several teenage girls and figured they had to be it. To make a very very long story short, the girls got spooked and put the phone in a bag and stashed it in a bush out behind a mall. It took about 30 minutes to home in on it because there was so much noise in that area that it was hard to hear unless you were really close. But they eventually found it, with 5% battery remaining. All this, from 3000 miles away.
So he was debating about how to approach the thief?
Simple – head meet baseball bat. Baseball bat meet head.