"The Red Tape Chronicles" tells the frustrating story of cellphone companies that are often slow to help customers and police after a phone is stolen.
Imagine for a second that a mugger beats up a victim and takes her purse, which has her phone in it. Then the thief makes some expensive calls. Those calls might be strong clues that could lead to an arrest.
But it can take weeks before the phone company turns over records of how the thief uses the phone right after a theft, robbery or mugging. Meanwhile, the trail gets colder with each passing day.
The story highlights the account of a Baltimore mugging victim named Orde Kittrie:
Cell phone providers require subscribers to pay for any unauthorized
calls made using a stolen phone before the theft is reported. Earlier
this year, a California television station reported that several
consumers forced to pay bills of thousands of dollars after their
phones were stolen.
Kittrie was lucky. A Sprint operator told him that a single
nine-minute call, on the morning of Aug. 27, was made with his phone
after it was stolen. But he was denied access to any other details
about the call. That tantalizing piece of evidence led him on a
month-long quest.
Call records can be vital in a robbery investigation. Police can
easily find a call recipient, visit the potential witness, and ask who
called. If the recipient is a relative or accomplice, tracking down the
criminal is often simple. And the evidence for prosecution is strong.
But as time passes, the quality of cell-phone leads diminishes.
Asking even a willing witness who called at a particular time a month
ago rarely yields a fruitful answer.
And if a criminal uses your cellphone, you may have to pay the costs. If the criminal makes international calls, for example, you could be liable for thousands of dollars in calls you didn't make. If police ask you not to cancel your number so they can use the calls as evidence, who pays the costs then? More than a month after Kittrie's phone was stolen, police finally got their hands on the phone records:
The records indicate the muggers actually made three
calls with his phone, Kittrie said. But it's not clear how much help
those records will be at this point.
"I am exceedingly frustrated," Kittrie said. "If this is happening
all over the country, and I have no reason to believe it is not, it is
a scandal and major contributor to the failure to solve many, many
robberies and cell phone thefts."
While there are no reliable estimates of the number of cell phone
thefts, anecdotal reports -- and reports from law enforcement officials
in other countries -- suggest phone theft is rampant. There are many
things consumers should know about it.
Carriers hold subscribers responsible for calls made with
stolen phones. The bill for such calls can be thousands of dollars, and
many carriers hold firm on the policy. That means you must report a
stolen or lost phone quickly. Err on the side of caution. A phone can
re-enabled if you find it later.
If a law enforcement official recommends you keep the phone on
for a day or so for investigative purposes, get the request in writing
and call your carrier to ensure you won't have to foot the bill. If the
law enforcement official tells you not to do that – because the cell
phone company may refuse to play along -- you'll have to balance the
risk of a big bill with the loss of potential evidence.
'Sesame Street' Helps Military FamiliesA special "Sesame Street" DVD aimed at helping injured
veterans talk about their disabilities with their children will soon be distributed to military families.
The Associated Press writes:
In the new production, Rosita, a fluffy blue
mop-headed muppet, is upset because her father has returned home in a
wheelchair. Rosita angrily refers to the wheelchair as “that thing” and
reminisces about the days when she could dance to salsa music and kick
a ball with her dad.
With encouragement from Elmo, Rosita musters the nerve to talk with her parents about how she is feeling.
“Sometimes
I feel a little sad, because things are so different now,” Rosita says
during a family outing to the park. “I wish your legs were OK, Papi,
and I wish you didn’t have to go to the doctor so much. And I just wish
things could go back to the way they were!”
Rosita’s
father tells her that although he may have changed, his love for her
hasn’t. And he persuades her to hop on the back of his wheelchair so
the two can try a new kind of dancing.
Last year, "Sesame Street" produced
a television special to help families talk about the strains of deployment.
Here are the video resources that go with that program. As I watched this very good work, I couldn't help but wonder whether TV stations, radio stations, networks and newspapers could be doing more to help military families as the producers of "Sesame Street" have.
Al's Morning Multimedia: Collecting Politicians' Data The Washington Post has developed
a clever little widget that allows users to add a candidate tracker to their own site or to their Facebook/MySpace pages.
Let's say you are a Joe Biden, D-Del., fan. You click on Biden's name and grab the code for that widget and add it to your site. There is also an option you can select to collect data for all the candidates.
The user gets constantly updated info and the
Post's
Web site gets the click-through traffic. Widgets are a great way to attract new readers.
Condos Built, Buyers Backing Out
As big condo projects that started nationwide during the real estate boom near completion, buyers are
looking to get out of their contracts. The developers and their banks are nervous. Buyers are hiring lawyers to back out of closing their deals, and some developers are sweetening the already negotiated sales by adding amenities.
Home Furnishing Market Slumps With Housing Slowdown
When home sales slow, so do home furnishing sales.
Furniture Today, a trade publication, says furnishing sales are expected to grow less than they have since 2001, when sales actually declined.
Fabric Producers Worry About Change to U.S. Copyright Law
Here is an interesting story I stumbled across while looking at the home furnishing story (above.) It turns out that fabric producers are worried about a proposed change to copyright law. I have reported about how the Orphan Works Act is of concern to writers and photographers, but I have never thought about how it applies to other copyright holders, such as those who design fabrics. The Orphan Works Act would allow others to rip off a design if they can't find the copyright holder. I just never thought about furniture having design copyrights, but once you think about it, of course the patterns have value. Interesting.
'Family-Friendly' Movie Movement
A small but vocal group of parents wants airlines to
stop showing racy movies on airplanes. I understand where they are coming from, but should we really expect all travelers to watch movies that are only appropriate for children? The answer, of course, is to have individual media players for each seat.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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