The story of a lost/stolen phone and craigslist

I am here still here.
Hi All, thanks a lot for all your mails and comments. Sorry for going AWOL.
Things arent going smooth at work, home and personally. Nothing that any normal person cant handle.

T-mobile, me and craigslist:
Anyway, it started off with loss of my mobile. While riding back in bike from my kid's karate class to home, I either lost my mobile or someone stole it, I dont know. I had HTC radar windows mango phone and a while before losing my phone I accidently once dropped the phone and screen got a little crack and little scratch around the corners.

After losing the phone, I immediately filed a report in both police stations. And I was hitting refresh on craigslist every minute. Guess what? The thief put an ad in craigslist with the picture of my cracked phone with 150$ price tag. Locked phone, broken phone, with scratches, without box, forget that, WINDOWS phone, I am a Microsoft moron, so I went for windows, who else on earth would go for windows phone?

I called the local cops and went to station around 10.30pm and told them and showed them the ad and the pictures. I carried my original box that came with the phone I bought from Microsoft store and shared the details of the phone. They asked me to wait and after a while came back and said that they spoke to the guy.

COPs and Me: Part 1

COP: We spoke to him, he had already sold the phone. And he says that it is his phone. He is not co-operating. We called from unlisted number saying we are interested in buying that phone. And then we called again and said we are cops, and he questioned on how the number comes up as unlisted and hence we cant be cops. He wasnt giving any details.
Me : You called him at 11 pm and said that you are looking for phone for sale? And he said he had sold the cracked phone already and he isnt co-operating?
COP: Yep, you say this is your phone but he says it is his. The phone doesnt have picture of IMEI or serial number so there is no proof that this is your phone.
Me: Ask him to bring the phone or give details of the guy to whom he sold it to, if the IMEI is different from my box here, then, there is your proof.
Imei – 358209040306248
s/n ht1amvr04602
p/n 99hph013-00
COP: He has no record, he could have taken your phone and sold it for cash, he isnt breaking law, unethical? yes, but - breaking law - NO.
Me: He is selling a stolen property. I called T-mobile, they said they cant help and told me that they cant deactivate or disable the phone either. And asked me to buy new phone at full price and renew my contract.

Yeah, right, why would I do that after this stunt? T-mobile used to be my favorite mobile , but after their failed merger deal, they are the WORST.

COP: That is T-mobile for you, try verizon, they are good.
Me: Verizon is CDMA, I am a GSM person, I am a Microsoft person. And I was about to install that app in my phone to do that annoying ring and remote wipe and tracking thing. My hubby had already installed it his phone.
COP: But you couldnt even protect your phone with a password.
Me: Touche. and you win.

The conversation that went on with cops was nothing like they show in CSI or Law & Order or any show. Maybe they show different breed of cops.

COPs and ME: Part 2
And after coming back, I had to change my accounts and passwords and again, I didnt remember for many of those. And I left one of my blogger gmail accounts open on purpose, because see - gmail gives you entry of IP address for last 10 logins.

I was waiting with my fingers crossed to check when this guy is going to connect to my phone. And this guy had started to use my phone - till day he is just connecting to WI-FI with my smartphone.
First was he connected from Wisconsin and then on Sunday from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trust me, I got the same doubt after watching Sikh temple shooting news report. Can you spell PARANOIA, call me, I can act out the whole episode for you.
Then on Monday, he had come back to Illinois and till day he is connected and using my phone from his home and from this ip.

Then I went back to cops give the ip details and said can they atleast get the ip details and get my phone back. Guess what,
the cops said they cant do anything and pulled out the report and called that guy and said that they have ip details on the phone and asked him whether he knew anything. Then the cop told me, he is not co-operating and we cant do anything about it. You may need to contact comcast and ask the details. Dont ask me about how I had to explain IP and all other details.

I asked him whether comcast would be willing to share the details to a civilian, he said they should. And told me that I should move on, because people loose things to fire. I replied back, loosing to fire is something, but a thief who dares to lie to a cop carrying pictures of babies and my home and friends, scares me a lot. I should stop investigating things myself.

I told him that I came to cops without contacting the thief myself because I wasnt sure whether he is a normal guy or sociopath and that I was just a working mom and not a trained cop. He said that he isnt CSI or the cop they show in TV shows.

I called comcast and they said that they cant do anything without court order.

Craigslist 2:
Guess what, he fixed the screen and then posted again with different id and number and he is selling locked phone for 210 dollars.

Carlos Orlando - the guy who stole my mobile phone, you are THE dumbest and THE luckiest guy in this whole wide world. Good luck with my broken phone. I can now only curse you aloud and wish that all snakes from India take over your home. Watch Justin Bieber videos and enjoy Adam Sandler movies.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
1. T-mobile stores should carry a headstone, leave flowers in front of that store.
2. You can kill a harmless teenage black kid or an teenage autistic kid you for breakfast and can walk free and have lunch at home.
3. You can steal and sell, it is perfectly legal but try to turn ON your camera in your shared room, you may go to jail for 10 years but if you steal the pictures from Harvard and rate the students, you could become a billionaire.

AMERICA - Land of the free and home of the brave.

But, this doesnt make India any better, first I couldnt have gone to cops, there is no guarantee for my anything and I should have bribed them my fortune to get same answer or much more insulting answer. The Indian cops would have to be enrolled in my regular Diwali, Pongal, New year, Christmas, Ramzan expensive gift receiver's list maybe for another 20 years.

And till today I am still working out details and my hubby is browsing PORN sites just to ensure that my photoshopped pictures dont pop up. ;-) And I am browsing magic mike sites and male stripper and escort sites just to ensure that my hubby doesnt show up nude ;-)

And if you are receiving some dutch porn from my mail, you know whom to blame,
1. T-mobile
2. Law and Order.
and definitely not me. What would you do if this had happened to you? Any ideas?