What to do when your phone is stolen

I've been lucky in that I've never had my phone stolen, at least until last weekend.

At first I thought I'd dropped it on a walk with my rescue dog and my partner went outside to look for it and kept on ringing the phone only to get the message "this phone is not available." 

I stayed in and looked all over the house in case I'd lost it there. But then I remembered that when we were out a white male in his  twenties or early thirties bumped into me and that's when I think my phone was stolen. It happened so fast I think he picked my pocket.

I was devastated. I use my phone for my writing and had pictures and texts of my late dad that I couldn't replace.

But my anger gave way to more practical matters, namely mitigating the potential for damage the thief could cause me. I needed to act fast or have my bank account and PayPal account emptied and a bill for a string of expensive calls.

How to find your IMEI number.

This is what you should do next -

1-Call your mobile/cell phone provider and ask them to block your SIM card. This will stop the thief from making expensive calls. Give your provider the IMEI number. This is a 14 or 15 digit identification code unique to your handset.  You've lost your phone and you'd find it behind the battery compartment so you need to access it another way. I still had the box my phone came in and it was printed on that near the barcodes

Tip - Your mobile phone provider may also have your IMEI number. Mine was in my online  account near my  phone number.

2-Change ALL of your passwords. And I mean all and do this immediately. Do to most important ones - ones that the thief can use to get at your money.

Here's my checklist -

PayPal

Online banking

Amazon

eBay

Grocery account

Email

Social media including Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Tip - if you're worried at all that your bank or PayPal has been accessed call your bank and PayPal immediately. You will probably not be held accountable if your accounts have been fraudulently used.

3-Access the phone remotely and lock it if you can. I did this because I was lucky to have backed it up and set up "find my phone" and enabled location. Locking the phone will prevent anyone else from using it.

Here's how to lock your Android phone remotely if it's lost-

4-Check to see if backing up the phone worked. If it did you can get all of the photos, texts etc you had on the phone back.

Tip - If you don't like the thought of some stranger going through your stuff, you can remotely delete your phone. There's some great websites that will give you instructions to follow.

5-Contact the police and give them details of phone - make, colour, description of case and most importantly that all important EMEI number. By giving them that 14 or 15 digit number  you might be able to stop the phone being sold or pawned. And if you're extremely lucky, the police might find your phone. They didn't find mine despite me being able to locate the street it was in through Find my mobile and having three picture the thief took added to my Cloud storage.

6-Tell your friends/work colleagues/boss/mum in case the thief somehow gets access to messaging or your email and sends them nasty or weird messages.

7- Call your home insurance company and find out if you can make a claim. You may or may not be covered for theft, but try. The insurance company can always say no.

If you've ever had your phone lost or stolen, you have my sympathies. It's a scummy thing to happen to anyone.

If it makes you feel any better imagine the thief touching your phone and getting their fingers burned. Trust me as a crime writer I've come up with many creative ways to punish the person who took my phone.