Mobile Phone Blog:

Right then, I’m going to try and do this blog post with an air of respect about it. I’m going to try to not immediately point the finger, and laugh. I’ll try. But I’ll probably fail.

Today’s tale comes courtesy of The Register, and it’s about a cabbie nicking a 16 year old’s iPhone. Er, only, there’s a bit more to the story than that. Y’see, the lad had been out on the town with his mates, and then hailed a cab to get home. Except he didn’t have enough money to pay for the cab home. So, the cabbie told him to put his phone on the dashboard, which he did. Got home, went to fetch money from in the house, brought the wrong amount, went back, came back out the house, cabbie had cleared orf, with his phone.

Now then, where to begin in this cavalcade of fail? Well, let’s start with the concept of “hailing a cab when you know you don’t have enough money to pay for it”. That can be FAIL#1. Then, add in the fact that he did put his iPhone (said to value 500 quid, so it sounds like it was a new iPhone 4, too) on the dashboard when the cabbie said to, which’d be FAIL#2. Then, of course, there’s the fact he went in the house while leaving his phone on the dashboard. That’s FAIL#3. Expecting the phone, or indeed, the cab, to still be there when he came out can be FAIL#4, or if you prefer, the final, ultimate CLUSTERFAIL.

Of course, other commenters on The Reg are saying that the story has a few holes, and theorising that the youth got lashed off his face, left the phone in the cab, fell asleep on the sofa instead of taking the money out, and the cabbie got fed up and took the phone. ‘Tis also a bit strange that he went to the local paper, not, y’know, the police, but anyway.

But let’s assume the story is genuine, and give him the benefit of the doubt; does he come off any better? Well, no, he actually comes off worse. At best, you could call it naive. And despite the fact you can guarantee he’ll never see the phone again (they tried contacting the network, who said the SIM had been taken out… should’ve got an HTC Desire HD, I believe you can brick those remotely if they get nicked), I have precisely zero sympathy for him. No, my sympathy goes to his mam and dad, who spent their money to buy him the phone as a present, and the muppet went and lost it. Sympathy for him? No, he doesn’t deserve it, he done failed.

Seriously, did common sense not kick in at any point, here?

Silly me, I forgot, he was using an iPhone, so no…

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