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This (word unable to be used in civil society) jacked my playbook from me today. I was showing him it, stupidly, allowing the first stranger to touch it since I bought it, and he ran off with it(obviously, it should have been no stranger ever touching it, but he had a Blackberry and for some reason I was compelled to show it off to him, maybe cause its just such a cool device. Lesson learned). I chased him but Im too fat and couldnt catch him, though i chased him pretty far.
This (yet another word unable to be used in civil society) had a Blackberry that he said has mobile hotspot (i think he said virgin mobile), he is undoubtedly using that to connect to the internet (and if he is doing so right now, hopefully crying because it just bricked itself thanks to customer support blocking my PIN), and the customer service rep said that because playbook is Wifi only and not on a phone carrier its gps cant be used to track it. Though if it is being used on a phones mobile hotspot, couldnt it then be tracked through its gps when its pin is used to access something? Think im gonna call Virgin tomorrow and see if they have a blackberry with mobile hotspot, and if thats possible. Though i guess its moot now that its gonna brick itself.
I dont post very often. As a general rule when I have problems I dont just tell the world. But Im heartbroken right now. I'm practically destitute, and I can't really afford another playbook. I used my tax return to buy this, the one nice thing I've bought myself since I went homeless a couple years ago. It was a debate between my playbook and upgrading, after 2 1/2 years, my Curve 8900 to a Bold 9900. I went with the playbook because it was cheaper and I've been wanting one since it was first announced. And I was not disappointed with the purchase.
Well Im gonna go cry about it for a little bit.02-27-12 10:47 PMLike 0 -
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Where were you? Some stranger just approached you and said "can I hold that"? It sounds horrible and I certainly feel for you (the PB was the first nice thing I was able to buy myself as well since myself, wife and two kids went homeless due to Hurricane Irene) and I would be fuming should that have happened to me. Although, I generally keep my distance from strangers and letting them hold my valuable items is always of course a no-no.02-27-12 11:02 PMLike 0 -
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Well sorry to hear man. Now by reading your story i'm never gonna hand out my playbook to a total stranger.
That's some seriously bad luck you got there, you thrusted him and yet he abused it and ran away with you playbook.
We should all track him down and give him the worst beating in his life! Would be a suprise if this person is also a member of CB.
If so shame on you!02-27-12 11:03 PMLike 3 -
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Sorry to hear about your loss! It's a small comfort that the Playbook is bricked to the thief. It is likely he will try to pawn it off on some sucker who doesn't realized it is bricked. Craigslist has been a good place to try and sell stolen goods. I would think the thief is not dumb enough to advertise it on eBay. If the thief does sell it to an unwitting buyer there might be a chance it could be recovered by police.02-27-12 11:07 PMLike 0 -
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Doubtful...I dont post very often. As a general rule when I have problems I dont just tell the world. But Im heartbroken right now. I'm practically destitute, and I can't really afford another playbook. I used my tax return to buy this, the one nice thing I've bought myself since I went homeless a couple years ago. It was a debate between my playbook and upgrading, after 2 1/2 years, my Curve 8900 to a Bold 9900. I went with the playbook because it was cheaper and I've been wanting one since it was first announced. And I was not disappointed with the purchase.gmcjing likes this.02-27-12 11:11 PMLike 1 -
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This is definitely one situation when I would say shoot to kill, even though fleeing the scene of the crime, is a reasonable response.
Sorry to hear about the thievery rampant in society today. We need Blackberry Protect with a "self-destruction in 5 seconds" option with a "go postal" flag. Report the theft to the police and it will be added to a watch list at pawn shops. Did you happen to get the telephone number of the Blackberry smartphone or a very detailed description of the criminal? I would have yelled "he's a child molester, stop him" as I was chasing the punk in the hopes someone else would step-in to knock him to the ground.02-27-12 11:14 PMLike 2 -
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I'm sorry this happened to you. How did this happen exactly? Were you guys outside and was there anyone around?
Things like that have been happening around my neighborhood as well. Like for example, there is a trendy little coffee shop in a rather urban neighborhood and these hipsters would go their with their expensive Macbooks and iPads. There have been several occurrences where people would come in, snatch someone's laptop, and just run out the door. Or worse yet, pretend to strike up a little conversation about how they think your device is cool and wanna check it out and then they run. It sucks to not be able to be friendly, worried about someone wanting to screw you over. My friend went to the mall the other day, put her phone down for like 20 secs to find a dress in her size on a clothing rack, and when she turned around it was gone. Someone must have been watching her, and took the chance to grab it as soon as she wasn't paying attention.
Sucks.. people are out there to get you!! Or your stuff...02-27-12 11:22 PMLike 0 -
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Sorry for the loss.
What does this do? Is it like when playbook comes online with internet access, they send it an update or something and then it does what? Not turn on? Gives error on start up or just wipes it clean and he can set it up just like a new playbook (with your data safely deleted) or something else. Just curious.
If they are able to send it a software update (like they do it when you sign up for beta or something), can't they send it some special call home update that would activate gps and send back its location. If they really wanted to implement such a thing, I don't think it would be a major issue? Send it a software update, he updates it, it runs a background service and starts sending it's gps locations to them whenever he is on the internet...02-27-12 11:24 PMLike 0 -
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My friend's Playbook has been stolen while traveling in central Amercia last Thursday. (Playbooks attract burglars now; I guess it is the bad side of a great new OS).
He was also wondering if it could be retraced with GPS. I tried to take care of it with Blackberry Support but did not have the PIN. So cannot do much until they return. BB Support also strongly advises as prevention to lock your device with a password. Data are all erased after the 8th wrong password.
Anyway, my friend is very upset as well. I truly sympathize with you guys. I hope you find a way to have a new one.02-27-12 11:30 PMLike 0 -
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Oh no. That sucks. I had my stolen last year too. Totally not cool. Hopefully you have credit card insurance for theft, and, in any event, the prices are still low to get another one!
You should also call RIM and tell them of the theft. They might remotely do something about the device when it logs into App World or something.i7guy likes this.02-27-12 11:33 PMLike 1 -
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Sorry for the loss, OP.
I'm terribly surprised too. Not much resale value for a PlayBook compared to an iThing.
You'd think it would be like this: Pair of Robbers Want Only iPhones, No BlackBerries | NBC New York02-27-12 11:46 PMLike 0 -
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He wasnt more than 6 inches from me. I was crowding him in case he did try to bolt with it. Apparently not enough though. My reaction time has slowed. Its not like I'm 26 and tuned up from practicing Wu Dang Tai Chi all the time. Im 30 and lazy from an underlying depression due to the circumstances of the last couple years, and have packed on about 50 pounds. He just said "I could play with this" and suddenly was off. I was like 3 feet behind him for a good distance but I got winded cause I was yelling trying to get the people he kept passing to stop him. All anyone did was smile at me like idiots. He got winded a little bit farther down and I was like 20 feet away from him. Turned a corner and disappeared within like 10 seconds. So he had have to gone into this one house that he had turned around but I cant just go there like a crazy person sayin "Is the guy who stole my Playbook here?" I mean I could, can, and probably will, but I at least like to pretend I am a rational being for the most part.
I grew up to trust in peoples basic good nature, and not judge a stranger by their look. I have never had expensive things stolen from me, never even had someone try before today. That kind of stuff just doesnt happen where Im from. Or maybe it does and I've just been lucky these past 30 years. And I'm trying not to let this shake my basic trust in the nature of others. But its hard. He passed multiple people, and not a single one stopped him. And the lady who was driving alongside me, talking to the cops on what appeared to be a Curve 9300, wouldnt drive me 20 feet to catch up to him and recover my property (which might seem like an odd gripe depending on how you would react to such a request, I would have said hop in, but thats because my moral system does not allow for sitting idly by, doing the bare minimum good thing (like just calling the cops and thats that) in a situation such as this). So I am just gonna keep going to the pawn shops every day, which the cops encouraged me to do, though since its bricked he prob wont be able to pawn it. But just in case he was able to pawn it before that happened I'm gonna check all of the pawn shops tomorrow anyways.
And also, not only is he gonna have an expensive brick, but he stole it from me in front of the local plasma donation center. He said he was a donor too, and that he donates usually around 2 o clock. Which anyone in the know about the Everett plasma center knows that 2-4 is the time to go, because its slow. Im gonna stalk the place during the week, since I only have a part time weekend job, and next time I see him I'm gonna point him out to the management so he wont be allowed to donate ever again. After calling the cops, of course. Thats 240 bucks a month that he will be denied because of me. Not to mention the whole "going to jail" thing. Also the people at the plasma center will be able to give the cops his address, so even if they don't get there in time they will be able to go and nab him where he lives. Nothing like the public humiliation of being dragged out of your home in cuffs, for all the neighbors to see.
I've decided that since they are 199.99 now and thats not just because its on sale, that I'm gonna buy a new one on the 17th, when I get my 2nd check. I don't care how much its gonna hurt me financially, its gonna hurt me a lot less than this hole in my heart where my playbook used to be.02-27-12 11:54 PMLike 0 -
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Homeless means a lot of things. I dont have a home of my own. My credit is so screwed up that I cant get an apartment. This one creditor is illegally trying to charge me 6600 dollars on a judgement that states that I cannot be charged singly or jointly on a lease because the company had hired a new manager who engaged in discriminatory practices against my girlfriend, one of the other lease holders, who is considered a protected class because she is disabled. I dont have the money to pay a lawyer and I refuse to pay these people that much. I sleep on my fathers couch. You might consider that as having a home. I dont. I consider this just as much of an inconvenience to my father as it was to my friends. Thus to me I'm still homeless. I pay for my 100 something dollar a month phone plan with the 240 dollars a month I get selling my blood plasma. I just got a weekend job, so I get like $688 a month now, counting the donation money, before tax. I got on my contract before all of this happened. And when I first went homeless, I had nowhere to go, and no job, and lived in the woods for a minute, paying 20 dollars or less a month on the pro rate scale on my contract so I had my phone on for the last 5 days of my pay cycle, to keep from breaking my contract and incurring yet another debt I didnt have the money to pay, the 200 dollar contract termination fee. I am now on a post paid plan, and have to pay the whole thing to keep it up. And dont want to incur an early termination fee so I pay my phone bill. I bought the playbook as the one treat I've had in over 2 years. With tax return money. Tryin to break out of this funk I'm in cause I was just getting more and more apathetic each day.02-28-12 12:12 AMLike 0 -
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what the customer rep said is that when it connects to the internet and registers its PIN it will security wipe and then be unaccessible until I call and tell them that I have it in my grubby little hands, and they in turn will unflag the pin, allowing me to start it back up.Sorry for the loss.
What does this do? Is it like when playbook comes online with internet access, they send it an update or something and then it does what? Not turn on? Gives error on start up or just wipes it clean and he can set it up just like a new playbook (with your data safely deleted) or something else. Just curious.
If they are able to send it a software update (like they do it when you sign up for beta or something), can't they send it some special call home update that would activate gps and send back its location. If they really wanted to implement such a thing, I don't think it would be a major issue? Send it a software update, he updates it, it runs a background service and starts sending it's gps locations to them whenever he is on the internet...
I had to fill out this to give them permission to do this:
I, [customer to insert first and last name : _____________] am the legitimate owner of a BlackBerry PlayBook device with the following device identifiers: PIN, BSN, and/or Serial Number: ____________ , which I had associated with my BlackBerry ID of: ______ (the �PlayBook�). My PlayBook was [customer to indicate �lost� or �stolen�: ]on or about [customer to insert day/month/year date: ]. I hereby request that Research In Motion Limited and its affiliated companies (�RIM�) take steps to block this PlayBook from accessing the BlackBerry infrastructure, and shall defend and hold RIM harmless for taking such steps. My phone number is [customer to insert: ] and my address is: [customer to insert: ] I hereby represent and warrant that the above statements are true and accurate, and acknowledge that the submission of false information may lead to criminal charges. I agree that transmission of this Authorization and Request by email or facsimile will be valid and acceptable, and that RIM shall be entitled to rely upon it.
Apparently their steps are to security wipe and lock out until recovery.
.02-28-12 12:22 AMLike 0 -
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....I wish you the best
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#$%^@#$#& stole my playbook!!!!!
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