Hi I had a pocket pc phone which I dropped outside a pub by accident. Someone had picked it up and run off with it. I tried phoning it 5 times but the thief didnt pick up. It's a real shame because I bought it with my savings and it costed me 20,000 baht. In a panic I phoned dtac to cancel the sim. In a way I wish I hadn't done that. I should have given the user a day or so to use the phone so that when I got an itemised bill I could have checked which numbers were called and informed the police to investigate.

The charger for the phone itself costs about 3000 baht and the thief would have to be buy the charger in able to use the phone and probably wouldn't have the software to use it anyway!

Anyway what's done is done. I guess I will never see my phone again.

I plan to buy another one in the future. What steps can I take to increase my chances of retrieving it if I ever have it stolen?

Is it possible in Thailand for police to track down the location and movements of the phone if the user is making calls from the sim of a stolen phone?

Did you record the IMEI number for your phone? Did you file a police report? If so, what services did the police offer, if any?

In theory you could contact mobile service providers; AIS/One-2-Call, DTAC/Happy and TrueMove and ask them to block that IMEI number from accessing their networks. Maybe ask them to send an SMS to the handset mentioning the blocking and your contact information for return?

I guess the IMEI number can be changed, with the right tools, but it is certainly one step.

In the future I would record the IMEI number and in the event the handset were lost or stolen, I would send an SMS in both English and Thai, mentioning that you will have the handset blocked, and possibly offer a decent reward for the return of the handset.

Your phone has already been sold off at a mobile shop, and your SIM is probably in another phone.

Maybe consider getting a 2nd cheap handset to take out when enjoying the nightlife?

My experience has been, the cops couldn't give a <deleted>, even when I provided them with a copy of the thieve's ID card, mama's address & a perfect color photo.

If I saw a bkk cop on fire I would'nt xxxx on him.

Sorry to read your story.

I have put a sticker on the battery with my home number and a note saying I will pay a reward. The same message is displayed when starting up the phone.

I have never lost a phone since I started doing this so not sure if it will work but at least there is a chance they will contact me if I simply forget it somewhere.

Duh!!! How to locate the IMEI number?

Guardian

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Of course you set a PIN number for when the phone is turned on,

and changed the Security PIN from its default of 12345,

to make it more difficult when someone puts a new SIM in???

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Thanks Udon.

Guardian

Of course you set a PIN number for when the phone is turned on,

and changed the Security PIN from its default of 12345,

to make it more difficult when someone puts a new SIM in???

No like an idiot I didnt. I find it a hassle to enter pins. After calling DTAC they told me that I should:

1. file a police report

2. xerox the imei number on side of the box

3. make a copy of my passport

and fax them all to dtac. Then within 24 hours they will block calls from other dtac sims.

That won't however, stop them slipping an orange or gsm sim in it and using it!

I may have to just accept that it is gone and opt to buy a cheaper palm device. It's possible the palm treo 650 pda phone may drop in price soon (that's if the palm treo 750 gets released in Thailand).