Where do looted mobiles go?
THOUSANDS of mobile sets muggers take away daily from people throughout the country. Laptops are also being snatched.
The question is how do the snatchers dispose them of. They must have ready buyers. The mobile/laptop markets are allegedly their buyers.
Whenever the police lay hands on those markets, shopkeepers argue that all of them are not culprits. But some shopkeepers in the markets are surely and certainly the buyers. Mobile market associations and the chambers of commerce and industry should be taken into confidence to find out the black sheep among them and take action against them.
The beneficiaries are clear. The government should resist pressures from market associations to resort to strikes etc and punish the culprits.
ZAFAR
Karachi
PTA should force to immobilise stolen mobile as its done all round the world, IMEI is easily obtained from the phone or the network. But looks like mobile companies are not interested in such moves and want people to use phone stolen or not!
All mobile phones are assigned a unique 15 digit IMEI code. The IMEI can be displayed on most mobile handsets by dialling *#06#. Otherwise the compliance plate under the battery has a unique number. This number must be noted by phone users and registered with the police when the phone is stolen or mugged. The police could at the same time list the phone’s details with IMEI code on a special dedicated website.
The buyer or seller must ensure that the second hand phone is not listed on police’s website as stolen. If unauthorised mobile sims can be checked on internet by public so why can’t a phone be checked.
In the same way, if IMEA code is known the phone could be detected by the new sim which is put in the stolen phone. Since these days every sim is registered to a person, this will lead the police to the culprit.
same should be applied to for auto spare parts, most of the car being stolen gets disassembled and spares are sold individually by used spares parts vendors scattered all over , for all those auto spare parts the term “kabli parts” is used, did someone concerned ever tried to ask them from where do they get those spares, there should be a strong check on those, in fact they should be banned and as a result there will be significant decrease in car theft.
The best way of stopping mobile phone snatching to stop resale with out its original pack and its cash memo.but mobile markets should follow the rule.
Simple actions like a disguised police officer can go in the main markets pretending to sell a stolen phone. Even if one or two shopkeepers are arrested every two weeks, it should be enough to create some sort of fear in the buyers discouraging them to continue.