Off with their heads!
-
Image credit: Clint Spencer/iStockphoto
< back1 of 1next >
Our family (Buzz, wife, daughter) recently lost its 11th cellphone to a scumbag thief who will, if there is any justice at all, burn in hell for all eternity. I would have loved to speed his departure to this mythical hot spot by equipping the cellphone with the aforesaid deterrent system. A little extreme? Not really. I might have taken a softer approach after the first, second or even the third theft, but by the time Incident Number 8 came up, I was suffering from a seriously impaired civil rights conscience. By Incident Number 11, I was apoplectic with rage and ready to go the vigilante route.
In our endemically dishonest society, anyone who leaves a cellphone unattended, or can be distracted for long enough to slip the phone from a handbag or briefcase, is regarded as fair game. Our phones are stolen by muggers, opportunistic crooks and occasionally even by friends or work colleagues. And I’m sick of it. An otherwise alert daughter has had three cellphones stolen from her handbag while visiting clubs in Cape Town’s Somerset Road. (Note to habitués of The Bronx and Crew Bar: if someone in the loo admires your lipstick or wants a closer look at that cool bracelet, please be aware that it’s only a distraction: they’re really after your cellphone.)
Each time a cellphone is stolen, you lose a valuable list of contact numbers, images from your gallery pass into the hands of (dodgy) strangers, and all kinds of personal information lands in the hands of someone who clearly has no scruples. Then you have to replace the phone (often getting an inferior model), buy a replacement SIM card, blacklist the stolen phone… it’s a mess, and an expensive one.
I would welcome your strategies for combating cellphone theft – the more extreme, the better. And for the record, I think thumbscrews and Iron Maidens are not as bad as people make out.
Yours in adversity
Buzz
