Diverse ways to lose your mobile

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a minibus taxi wearing my American-inspired baggy pants, with my cellphone safely in my pocket. At least - that`s what I thought.

I was chatting happily to the stranger sitting next to me, and we bonded over discussions about poverty, government, taxi violence, who will succeed President Thabo Mbeki, and - of course - the high crime rate in our country.

To my distress, I discovered when I got off the taxi that my cellphone had slipped out of my pocket. When I got home, I immediately dialled my own number, hoping the new "friend" I`d met on the trip would find it and keep it safe for me. To my delight, he answered the phone, and instantly promised to return it safely to me.

A few minutes later I called again to arrange a meeting place. Not too surprisingly, I suppose, he hung up when he heard my voice and never answered my calls again.

I dialled again and all I could hear was my own irritating voice mail message that was meant to annoy unwanted callers, other than me.

Goes to show that while you`re chatting to a sympathetic soul about the evils of crime in our country, the same person could turn around and stab you in the back. Or liberate your phone.

I`m not the only person to lose a mobile device in a strange way.

Itumeleng Mogaki, Trainee Journalist, ITWeb

I`m not the only person to lose a mobile device in a strange way. A colleague recently told me that while he was intoxicated by the free booze at a house party, his cellphone started ringing as he responded to the call of nature. As he prepared to answer it, he started panicking, thinking it was his better-half calling to find out what he was up to.

As he fumbled to answer the phone, it fell into the toilet. How he retrieved it is better left to the imagination.

Someone else I know was sitting at his desk, typing away on his PC trying to catch up on yesterday`s work, and sipping on a hot cup of coffee to keep awake. "Upside minded" from the previous night`s party, he completely missed the cellphone stand on his desk and placed his cellphone carefully in the coffee.

I`m sure this little story rings a bell for a whole lot of people.

And those who attach their cellphones to their belts - be careful, stories abound of phones disengaging from their clips and slipping into urinals or crashing to the floor.

The popular "smash-and-grab" method of liberating loot from cars is a lucrative business for criminals, who mostly target women drivers at red traffic lights. I can`t even begin to think how traumatic it must be for someone to break your car window and snatch your hard-earned phone - especially if you`re in mid-chat at the time.

The sad part is, you can find some of these evil characters on a street corner, selling stolen cellphones for R200, or less if you`re good at haggling.

Hopefully, new security moves like Vodacom`s recently implemented blacklisting policy for stolen or lost cellphones and SIM cards will deter thieves from helping themselves to other people`s belongings.

Then again, this is SA - and I suspect some of our best technology innovations will come from criminals competing to override honest technology innovations designed to improve ICT security.