A few days ago, a homeless man walked into my office and grabbed my smartphone -- he snuck it in his jacket and as he walked away thanked me for some reason. A few minutes later, I learned he had stolen my phone. I hope he gets arrested for his crime and taking something that's not his. I was upset and have reported the incident to the police, giving them his description, and I told them that the guy was not nervous, he walked like he owned the place. He walked out the door, and I went to my office and immediately noticed my phone was missing.
It's a crime and I am mad as hell for losing my phone. Phones are no longer just a calling device. They are our very own personalized communication center. Photos, videos, games and loads of apps customized to my preference have all been taken from me. Cell phones are all about being mobile and what is more mobile than a homeless man?
According to the police officer, I work on the same block where there's a vibrant homeless kitchen that attracts a certain kind of people to the area where warm meals are served.
It bites to have to start over again and have to set up new phone with emails, passwords, contacts and various accounts for the social media. The worst part was he took it and with it took eight gigabytes of music and photos. I love music and naturally my phone mp3 player always has the best and the latest songs, I listen to them every morning and evening as I walk to and from work. The bad news, the homeless man won't understand a word those young and good looking people utter -- they are not in English. Plus, my wife was at the downtown DC Macy's and she tends to call me whenever she sees something she loves. (I do realize I just lost a device not a kidney.)
My co-workers helped me look for the phone and when we did not find it, I reported to the DC police who wanted to know the serial number so that they can best track if it shows up for sale at some pawn shop. I suspended the services as the homeless man was busy calling places all over the map as I just learned. Did me a good deed by giving me a much needed break from being plugged in and worrying about charging my battery. But the Joke is on him, he is the one who will be stressing out now.
But then, something strange happened, I did not miss my phone as much as I thought I would. Something about the constant beeping of incoming tweets, new emails and latest phone updates are things I do not miss. I had a better night's sleep and loved not hearing the interference between the radio signal in my alarm and the phone signal. There's peace in being on a break from all that stuff -- do I really need to see those new pictures of your baby? Is it worth waking me up to tweet at me of you having just enjoyed the best buffalo wings in America?
I am sure things may change the more time passes by without my phone. While I have not completely fallen off the grid (Skype and gchat bring me the world), it has been nice to take a break from all that noise and stress phones bring with them. We have more than one way of communicating, between the wi-fi and the GPS we can never roam alone.
Naturally, Roa my wife did not like not being able to get a hold of me -- she suspects I am prolonging the process of getting a replacement phone as I never seemed liking to talk on the device much. I winked at her and we both had a good laugh about it. I promised to go pick up a replacement sim card and use my dinosaur phone till I save enough money for a new smartphone that will put me back in this vicious yet necessary circle.