What I did when I lost my phone

It is a bad experience to lose a mobile phone. It doesn't matter whether the phone was costly or cheap. Losing a mobile phone is, in my opinion, a lesser form of "losing your Laptop"

To make my point clearer, usually the data on the Laptop is far more important than the Laptop itself, especially if you are an office goer. Many times you would wish that you should have backup up the data. The case is even worse the Laptop contains confidential / sensitive information.

The same logic applies to a lost mobile phone, your contacts, calendar entries, notes, messages, songs, pictures, videos and emails (I used to do that from my phone.) become more important than the phone itself. To add salt to the injury you also lose your memory card with it.

Another part of the bad experience in my case was that since I lost it during my cousin's wedding, everybody in the family got to know about me and almost everybody had a thing or two to say to me about "taking care of your phone".

However coming back to the point, I did the following as soon as I realized that my mobile phone is lost.

1) Called the Customer Care number of the Service Provider (Vodafone in my case.) and temporarily suspended all the SIM.

You would need the following information to suspend the SIM, if the SIM is not registered under your name:

a) Name and Address of the person under whose name the SIM is registered.
b) Date of Birth of that person.
c) Last bill amount and the date on which the amount was paid.

The above list is not exhaustive and varies from Service provider to Service Provider. For Example an Idea mobile subscriber would require only a) and b) while a Vodafone Subscriber requires all three.

2) Noted down the following details:

a) Phone make and model.
b) The SIM that was being used.
c) Date and time on which, I thought the phone might have been lost.
d) The place where, I thought it might have been lost.
e) The occasion, i.e why I was there in the first place.
f) The IMEI number of the phone. (Should be present on the bill or in the box which shipped with the mobile).

The following documents too would be required:
a) Bill of purchase of the mobile.

3) I went to the nearest police station and asked the police what documents would be required.

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NOTE TO THE READER:
YOU SHOULD REGISTER THE COMPLAINT WITH THE NEAREST POLICE STATION, I.E IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PHONE IN DADAR, LODGE AN F.I.R AT THE DADAR POLICE STATION, AS THE AREA IN WHICH YOU HAVE LOST LOST YOUR PHONE WOULD COME UNDER THEIR JURISDICTION.
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I was told that they would require a document testifying of all the facts I have noted above in a legal form (i.e on a 100 RS stamp paper).

A thing to remember is that the above task is not daunting, usually the person/office who/which would help to prepare such documents are found near the police station itself.

So I went to the nearest office (stationary shop with a computer and printer --- for you know what) and told the situation to the guy there. He already had a preformatted document for a lost mobile phone. So he simply replaced the details in the document with mine, and printed the entire testimony on the stamp paper, he even took care of the stamps to be attached.

The orignal document is in Marathi so it basically reads as follows:

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Addressed to "KARYAKARI DANDADHIKARI, XXXX TEHSIL"
(where XXXX is the name of the place).

I Vivek Ram Mhatre, XX yrs of age living at : (YOUR ADDRESS), currently had come here to attend the wedding of my cousin residing at: (HIS ADDRESS).

My mobile was (MAKE, MODEL and COLOUR). it had the postpaid/prepaid number 9XXXXXXXXXX, contained the SIM of (Cellular service provider's name). I lost the mobile on (DATE, TIME and PLACE) during my brother's wedding. I believe it to have fallen from my pocket, near my brothers house when I was busy in making arrangement's for the guest's. I tried a lot to find it but I couldn't get it. That's the reason I want to register an F.I.R. with the police and so I am submitting a testimony of the fact's.

I testify that all the things written above are true and if found untrue, I am eligible to be prosecuted under XXXXXXXX act.

Place: (PLACE)

DTD: (DATE)

SIGNATURE


SIGNATURE OF THE WITNESS.
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4) Then I got this signed and notarized by the Executive Magistrate, whose office happened to be nearby (At least in Mumbai, I believe that everything you need is usually nearby).

NOTE: EVEN THE ABOVE TASK AS NOT SO HARD, YOU WOULD BE POLITELY DIRECTED TO THE REQUIRED PLACE.

5) Then I made three photocopies of the testimony and submitted the original to the Police Inspector. He in turn registered the F.I.R and handed to me a letter confirming the same with all the relevant details along with his seal and stamp.

6) Contacted Nokia customer care and heard the bad news, which is as follows.

Unless you have some sort of tracking software installed on the phone, a phone cannot be tracked, even by Nokia itself.

So I reached a dead end, with mounting exam pressure and due to some of my own personal problems I had to stop there.

7) READ Avi's post and followed the instructions given in his post. You can read it at:


http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/57699-Different-ways-find-lost-stolen-mobile.aspx

PS: See the attachments for photo's of some of my documents