Dangit, My Apple iPhone Was Stolen Today!

Six months after getting my iPhone, it was stolen from me

Can I whine just a bit for a moment? WAH!

I'm just a little bummed out right now because earlier today my beloved iPhone was stolen. Yep, right from under my nose, the dad-blamit thing just disappeared on me. What makes it worse is that it happened at the gym likely while I was using the abdominal equipment to do my 150 crunches (as part of my new commitment to resistance training). Double whammy! UGH!

I know, I know, some of you are laughing hysterically right now because you feel utter glee that I would allow myself to lose something like an iPhone which I paid $600 for back in August 2007 (they've since dropped the price to $400). Alright, got that out of your system now? Good. For the rest of you without iPhone envy syndrome, I have to tell you that little gizmo was one of the best business investments I'd ever made. Besides my computer, that phone was my lifeline to so many facets of what I do. And it had EVERYTHING about me on it (but I'm not worried about identity theft since I got LifeLock four months ago to protect me).

But now my iPhone is gone in the blink of an eye. Shoot!

Here's what happened: Around noon today, I drove down to the gym to get in a quick 30-minute resistance training workout before running some errands to the bank and to pick up some kitty litter and cat food from PetSmart. The first thing I did when I got to Peak Fitness was head straight to the machine to do my abdominal workout since my personal trainer wants me to get in at least 100 a day (I've been doing 150).

As always, I kept my iPhone in my left pocket in case I got any calls while I was out. It's the same place I always keep it when I exercise and I've never had an issue. In my right pocket was my Sony Walkman to listen to the radio while I worked out. I went through my entire routine working on my abs and arms today, ran my errands, got home, and only took three steps inside before I felt down my left pocket for my iPhone and it wasn't there.

My heart immediately sunk (don't you just HATE that feeling?!).

Before I even spoke to my wife Christine, I raced out the door to my car and hurriedly drove back to the gym that was about a mile away from my house. When I got there, I asked the attendant at the front desk if anyone had turned in a cell phone. He starts digging for a box and said, "You can check in this box we have." I explained I was just there less than an hour before and that it would have been turned in recently. He said nothing was brought to him.

My heart sunk some more.

So I retraced all my steps in the gym and headed straight for the abdominal machine first. Not there. I looked around all the equipment and weights where I had been to see if it has slipped out around them. Same result...not there. I was getting sick to my stomach thinking that this little expensive apparatus that is one of the lifebloods of what I do had been stolen by a member or staff at my gym. ARGH ARGH ARGH!

Okay, so I seethed all the way back home and had to break the news to Christine who was the level-headed one for once when she suggested we call the police and file a stolen item report, call our insurance company to file a claim against our home owner's insurance, and call AT&T to suspend the usage of the iPhone until we can sort this thing out. Before I did all of that, though, I decided to call my cell phone number to see if someone had it and wanted to return it to the proper owner. But after three attempts and it went to voicemail each time, we started making the calls.

What was supposed to be an afternoon filled with getting some regular work in--making calls, doing some research, and blogging before the BCS Championship game tonight--turned into nearly five hours of being put on hold, transferred, sharing information, and the whole rigmarole you go through when something like this happens. We all have been through something like this at one time or another, so today was my lucky day. Ain't it great? NOT!

We suspended the telephone number with AT&T so the creep that has my iPhone couldn't make calls (as if he would even try that anyway since that would open himself up to being caught). I wasn't really worried about him/her running up the bill because I had a TON of minutes on there and AT&T has the rollover minutes as well. The person would have to talk nonstop for days before the bill would have been run up.

The next call was to Allstate to report this with my homeowner's policy. The deductible is $250 and I paid $600 six months ago for my iPhone, so we should get a little assistance with paying for a replacement phone. The actual report will be taken by a third-party processor on Tuesday so wish us luck!

Finally, we called the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department here in Spartanburg, South Carolina to report my iPhone being stolen. The very nice woman who took the report responded, "Oh my!" when I told her my iPhone was the item taken. She indicated the phone is a hot commodity for thieves. Not what I wanted to hear!

More rumbling in my stomach! Grrrrr!!!

But then some relatively good news started happening. I found a couple of old Apple credits that I had not used and decided to call them up to purchase a new iPhone to replace the stolen one. I was concerned about whether I had enough money in the bank to cover the replacement since our checking account balance was about $400. We don't use credit cards, so our check card was the only other payment option. After the two credits were applied, the total cost on our check card was just over $300. WHEW! That's $300 I didn't want to spend, but I need my iPhone again! They said it should be here by the end of the week.

Then I received a check in the mail today that fully replenished our checking account (Thank you Lord!) and helped us pay for the new phone. I drove down to the AT&T store and transferred my cell phone number that was on my iPhone to my old cell phone until the new iPhone arrives. At least I'll still get my calls from clients and be able to call long distance in the interim.

As for the punk who stole my iPhone, it's pretty much useless to him now. I've reported the serial number--75727M6HWH8--as STOLEN with AT&T, my insurance, and with the cops, so he's screwed if he tries to sell it or reactivate it for his own personal use. For the life of me, I cannot even begin to imagine what would compel somebody to think that taking something that doesn't belong to them is even remotely the right thing to do. The guilt of doing something like that would eat me alive.

I am thankful that the phone was simply taken and not robbed from me. I guess it would have been worse had the thief hit me upside the head with a blunt object or pointed a gun at me in order to steal my iPhone. Not only would I have been out the phone, but then I would have needed to have my head examined (some would say I need to anyway!) or I would have been shot. EEEEK!

Christine said this whole incident had her so stressed today she wanted to eat carbs (she recently started back eating strict low-carb again to lose some weight she gained during our recent IVF cycle). But she resisted the urge and stuck to plan. I'm proud of her because stressful times are no reason to give in to carbs! She made me so proud. :)

Alright, enough of my whining already. Dangit, my Apple iPhone was stolen today, but at least there was a somewhat happy ending. All will be back to normal again by the end of the week--except for that $300 or so hit to my wallet! I'll have to chalk it up to another one of those tried and true lessons in the school of hard knocks that we all go through.