CAPILLAS
Watching those videos of cell phone owners losing their units to thieves in broad daylight is quite upsetting especially if one knew how much money they invested to own one, only for these criminals to sneak up and snatch them away.
I can recall at least three cases of cell phone snatching and the victims were robbed just as they were using their units. One female was doing a Facebook Live chat inside a café with friends in Quezon City when an unidentified man grabbed her cell phone and threatened to kill her if she fought back.
Two other cases occurred in Cebu; one, a jeepney passenger was using his/her cell phone when the thief sneaked from behind and grabbed it right smack in the middle of noon traffic.
The video of the incident which included a close-up shot of the mustachioed snatcher was posted on Facebook. The third incident, involving a woman using her cell phone while doting on her son, was also posted on Facebook and the thieves were helmet-wearing motorcycle riders who grabbed her smartphone and sped away.
More likely than not, those stolen cell phones find their way to vendors and stall owners in downtown areas like Colon Street in Cebu City where they are sold at less than half their market price after they were peddled to them by the snatchers to pay for a quick meal or two before they go out into the street to prey anew on hapless cell phone owners.
As far as I can recall, a proposal to install kill switches in smartphones remain pending in Congress while the Department of Justice (DOJ) already persuaded telecom firms to install “kill switch” software to enable users to disable their phones if they were stolen.
Both PLDT, which owns Smart and Sun, and Globe have been supportive of the “kill switch” proposal though Globe said it already has some features that disable their units once their customers report about their cases to their office.
Personally, I would suggest something drastic: a “kill switch” in which owners can remotely activate their cell phones to blow up, like a supercharged firecracker, in case they were stolen.
Or a “kill switch” that would allow cell phone owners to electrocute the thieves or inflict a taser-like stun effect that would disable them long enough for the owner to scream for help from the police or any sympathetic passerby or give him/her enough time to karate chop the snatchers into submission and make them regret they’ve ever tried to steal anything from him/her.
Just imagine the look of horror and pain etched on the faces of these thieves as they see what used to be their hand now gone and reduced into a bloody stump. New Year would come early for them and not in a good way.
That kill switch app or feature can either be named “Piccolo,” “Judas Belt,” “Goodbye Philippines” or whatever they name those firecrackers. Instant punishment for the snatchers and a warning to his friends not to steal anything again.
The electrocution/taser stun effect may be offset by the thieves wearing rubber gloves. On second thought, desperate thieves can get really creative and it may be a matter of days before they think of ways to get around these security features. But at least something is being done to stop them in their tracks.
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I mention this issue in light of personal experience. I lost a Nokia cell phone to a snatcher while riding a passenger jeepney along Fuente Osmeña during the Sinulog observance eight years ago, and the snatcher managed to call my mother and ask for load which she did, thinking it was me who requested her for it.
Smartphone thefts remain one of the top index crimes in Metro Cebu and other urban centers in the country and with that in mind, I make it a point to do the best I can to avoid these blood-sucking robbers.
It was thus unfortunate that Samsung stopped production of their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones. I could have bought a couple and rigged it somewhat so that whoever got the bright idea to steal it would watch their hands burn to a crisp after I activate the kill switch.
It sounds wrong and it is, but victims of cell phone thefts cannot help but wish that they can get back at these robbers, knowing that the likelihood of these crooks being caught by police is nil and all hope of recovering t