Mobile phones that shout for help

The Washington Post has an entertaining story about the ways that stolen mobile phones can 'report' a thief.

Robber caught after swapping mobile with victim

A 21 year-old man has been jailed for six months after stealing a mobile phone and handing over his own phone as compensation. Eneas Tanyongana from Harlow was arrested within hours of his offence. He 'd robbed his 16-year-old victim on a train in Hertfordshire, threatening to stab him if he didn’t hand over his mobile phone. When the boy asked what he was supposed to do without a phone, Tanyongana handed over his own phone, complete with contact details and photos. Police investigators used the information contained in Tanyongana’s phone to identify and arrest him. The victim's phone was recovered and CCTV footage was used to link the attacker to two other robberies. [Press release]

T-Mobile lost information about 17 million German customers in 2006

Rather belatedly, Deutsche Telekom has admitted that its T-Mobile subsidiary in Germany had confidential data about 17 million customers stolen in 2006. The missing information included telephone numbers, dates of birth, postal addresses and email addresses. The company says it's now reinforced security procedures and has no evidence that the missing data has been misused. [Sources: Yahoo.com; DW-World.de]

55,000 mobiles left in London taxis... in 6 months

A survey from security software company Credant Technologies says 55,843 mobile phones and 6,193 other mobile storage devices, including laptops and MP3 players, have been left in London taxis by careless customers in the last six months. 80% of the taxi drivers surveyed said the owners were eventually reunited with their lost items - a considerably higher figure than in New York. [Source: BBC.co.uk]

£32,000 of iPhones stolen

119 Apple iPhones worth over £32,000 have been stolen from an O2 store in Basildon, reports Mobile (quoted in Cellular-News.com).

Man reports mobile phone 'theft' with phone still in pocket

The BBC has an amusing story from South Africa. Police in Pretoria say that a man walked into a police station to report that his mobile phone had been stolen at gunpoint. He gave the make, model and mobile number of the phone to a detective, who called the number of the phone at the end of the interview. The phone then rang in the man's pocket.