Last updated April 12, 2019
Nobody wants to have a cell phone stolen right from his or her nose, but that is what has been happening coast to coast for more than a decade now. All a person had to do to ‘lose’ a cell phone was set it down on a table in a restaurant and turn away for a moment. Those days, however, may soon be coming to an abrupt end thanks to cell phone providers. Cell phone service companies are now providing ways to make sure that a stolen phone can’t be activated on their networks again.
Police chiefs across the nation are expecting this tech breakthrough to make a major difference to crime statistics, but that of course will only happen if cell phone thieves actually get the word about the improvements. According to Chief Dan Isom of St. Louis, there’s going to be “a lag time before people realize there is no resale value in phones.” How long that lag time may persist is not yet known.
Still, this is definitely a step in the right direction, and just in time, too. Cell phone robberies across the United States are on the rise, fuelled by the arrival of new, higher-tech phones such as the iPhone 5. It’s one thing for owners to decide to sell old cell phones on their own, but quite another to have thieves stealing phones to do the same thing. Hopefully, this news will put a serious damper on cell phone thieves looking to make a quick buck at someone else’s expense.