@TeresaCornish77 wrote:
My Cell phone was stolen yesterday, How would l go about getting my phone shut off so that know one else will beable to use lt, My cell phone has very important pictures on lt of my mom and dad that had passed away,Could someone please get back to me concerning this matter, As l really need my phone, Thank you
Some phones have the ability to be password locked, or erased remotely. That would reduce any privacy concerns that you may have. However, if you phone has a non-encrypted sd card (set up as portable storage in Android), the person will be free to snoop through any files they wish by removing the memory card and inserting it into another device. Some phones can also be remotely set to show a message on the screen with instructions on how to return the phone to you. This would involve logging into your account (gmail account, for example, in the case of Android phones).
Some phones also allow you to use to patch into the device's GPS unit and you will be informed of where your phone currently is. But that's only going to work if the person hasn't turn your phone off. Also, in a higher density location such as a shopping mall, appartment building, sports statdium, it's impossible to know which person has your phone. Also, it would likely be unwise to confront someone if the person really did steal your phone, as you would not want to be in contact with criminal who may feel threatened by you and do something rash.
You can contact Public Mobile so that the IMEI (basically a serial number) of the phone number can be blacklisted so that this phone cannot be used in Canada. That isn't entirely effective though as many phones can have the IMEI changed, and then, the anyone can use the phone again.
How do you know it was stolen and not just lost? I mean - did you actually catch someone reaching into your pocket, taking it, and running off? If that happened, you could file a police report, but you're extremely unlikely to see any results from that in terms of getting your phone back.
If your phone was simply lost/dropped/misplaced, you are at the mercy of the person finding it and that person either trying to contact you to return it, or turning it into a police station as lost property. You can always check with a few of the closest police stations to see if anything matching the description of your property has been turned in, but if they were able to find your information on it, they would have already tried to contact you about it. If you go that route, make sure to contact police using a non-emergency phone number, or just walk up to the station's front desk and ask.
Your best chance at getting your phone back would be if it was lost. Unfortunately, if it was stolen, the reality is that you're not going to get it back (it would take a small miracle) - sorry.
