Last weekend I went to the Kalorama festival:
It was great fun. However, there was drama too. In the middle of the Artic Monkeys concert, I noticed I didn’t have my phone. There was only one place where it could have fallen since I remembered exactly up until what point it was in my hand.
After going to the police, canceling my SIM card, blocking the phone with Google, and getting the phone canceled with all the operators, I was lucky enough to get my phone back in less than 48 hours.
2 September
- 23:5? - I noticed my phone is missing.
- 23:55 - Someone shuts down my phone. It is only turned on 18 minutes later. The battery level is at 55%.
- 23:42 - Live Location sharing with Marius ended.
- 23:47 - Live Location sharing with Mariana ended.
- 23:51 - Last known location by Google Timeline.
3 September
- 00:11 - Call from André Carvalho - Phone is Off
- 00:35 - Call from André Carvalho - Phone is Off
- 01:01 - Call from Mariana - Phone is Off
- 01:32 - Revolut shows a bill for 10€ for “Meo Kalorama”. This is the price of a gin. I was with friends and we were paying each other rounds (30+€) and this was a 10€ bill, the price of a gin tonic. I don’t believe this was an error as Revolut typically shows correct date and times and the value was very different from what was expected.
- 11:13 - I get my IMEI and update it with the police. This way if the phone is found, they’ll know I’m the owner. It also allows me to go to the telecom operators and register the phone has stolen. This way it gets blocked from connecting to their service.
- 12:?? - I fill my reports with the three operators: Vodafone, MEO and NOS. They now have my IMEI and the phone is on it’s way to being a “bricked”.
- 13:07 - I post an Instagram Story with the text “Stolen phone, stolen cards. Because life can’t go too smooth, right?” showing the photos of my police reports.
- 17:23 - I receive a message on my instagram, replying to my story. Saying they have my phone and cards, together with a temporary photo. I open it and there it is, a blurred photo of my lost goods. I didn’t see the message at the time.
- 19:?? - I’m back to the festival and I check the mobile police unit again for my lost phone. Weirdly enough our conversation is interrupted by a young woman that tells me she has my phone and that she sent me a message on instagram. I confirm, and there is indeed a message there. We arrange for me to pay her a drink that night and for her to return my phone the next day. She told me the phone didn’t have power and that she didn’t deliver it to the police because one time she forgot and the other she thought they wouldn’t be able to find the owner.
