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Stolen Sidekick Revenge

Johnny Rico said:
Yeah it says, "PWN3D". :eek: :p
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Agreed. What will be even more awesome, is when/if the thief finds out how to turn the tables on the guy and things get escalated. We may have a gunfight on our hands in the next few days. Saweet!!:D

Yes, I am kidding.

The stupid thief will never find out how to turn the tables.;)
 
xsedrinam said:
I think this scenario could serve as a microcosm of how frustrated ripped off people feel who have been blown off and disappointed with conventional routes (call 911, call police, file reports, wait......nothing) and decide to take matters in to their own hands. It may give some momentary sense of being proactive rather than feeling helpless, but it's also concerning to think of a society full of internet vigilantes out there.
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I think you're on to something here. We all know, or at least should know, what's right and wrong. Yet, there's no one to enforce it anymore. The police are concerned with "serious" crimes and don't have time for small issues, regardless of how important they are to us. We feel helpless against small injustices, and slanders. The reckless drivers are rarely caught. The red light runners too! Even car thefts and burglaries are rarely investigated. You file a report and that's usually the end of it. Instead, if we want anything done, we are left to our own devices. I don't advocate violence to achieve justice, but what he's doing, I don't have a problem with.

As long as what he has said is true.
 
dornoforpyros said:
I dunno, it still seems to me that we have an adult, with lots of technical experience bullying a teenager around. That says a lot for his maturity.
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Age really has nothing to do with it. Besides, the dude in pic 4 looks like he's mid-20's at least: in any case they're both old enough to comprehend the law (stealing) and knowing right from wrong. And reading some of the exchanges between Evan and the people with the Sidekick, it doesn't seem like a lot of bullying is going on. Evan has clearly stated that he wants 2 things: the Sidekick and an apology. Personally, I think that he is handling this with maturity and integrity (at least on the internet). He hasn't resorted to name-calling, etc.

xsedrinam said:
Note: Then there's the other thing. Own up to your own stupidity (i.e. don't leave your cell phone in a cab and expect to see it again.)
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Still, one's being stupid doesn't make stealing any less illegal. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't expect to get something back. But when you have proof (IE the whole deal with the Sidekick's pics/IM/etc being uploaded to the web) and you confront the person about it, you have a reasonable expectation that the person would do the right thing and return it.
 
jdechko said:
Evan and the people with the Sidekick, it doesn't seem like a lot of bullying is going on. Evan has clearly stated that he wants 2 things: the Sidekick and an apology. Personally, I think that he is handling this with maturity and integrity (at least on the internet). He hasn't resorted to name-calling, etc.
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I dunno, posting video of her dancing so people can go laugh at her and post rude comments on myspace? Driving enough people to her myspace page that she shuts it down? Some jerk actually going to her neighbourhood with a video camera? I'd say he's crossed the line between "here's some jerks who stole my side kick, look how dumb their photos are" into harassment territory.

And as xsedrinam, the original sidekicks owner LOST it. Does that give the girl the right to keep it? Absolutely not, but let's not act like the girl went out of her way to get it.
 
Man, I'm seeing a LOT of rationalizing going on in this thread, to whit: "It isn't stealing because she didn't steal it, she found it." That still doesn't change the fact that the rightful owner now has the right to turn the "stolen" Sidekick into a very expensive paperweight... he can have the phone's serial number blocked on the network and it will be USELESS. So why wouldn't the "thieves" (quotes inserted to change the meaning slightly) just return the phone for the originally-offered reward? (Let's not forget that he himself had to shell out $300 for a replacement phone for himself.)

Because they're IDIOTS. They've put exactly ZERO thought into how this is all going to play out. They thought they could take advantage of another person's misfortune and get themselves a $300 phone in the process. Because of their militant stupidity, they're now getting NO reward, the phone will be (or is already) rendered useless, and they've brought a load of heat on themselves. If they had two working brain cells between them, they'd've arranged to turn the phone in at a police station, along with a note of apology.

Let me pose you the following question: Would you all be as sympathetic if you lost your iPod, or your MacBook Pro, in a taxicab and then you found out somehow who had it? (We had an MR poster here a while back whose iPod was stolen by a fellow student, and he found out who had it... and I think pretty much everyone encouraged him to do whatever he had to, within legal bounds, to get it back. Why the change in attitude now?)
 
dornoforpyros said:
I dunno, posting video of her dancing so people can go laugh at her and post rude comments on myspace? Driving enough people to her myspace page that she shuts it down? Some jerk actually going to her neighbourhood with a video camera? I'd say he's crossed the line between "here's some jerks who stole my side kick, look how dumb their photos are" into harassment territory.

And as xsedrinam, the original sidekicks owner LOST it. Does that give the girl the right to keep it? Absolutely not, but let's not act like the girl went out of her way to get it.
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He never actually encouraged video taping, in fact he said don't do it. Yes he's posting the videos of other people doing it, but he does so with a disclaimer. And if she had to shut down her myspace page, tough.

I agree, the girl didn't go out of her way to take it. However, she refused to return it, even for a reward. That is wrong, plain and simple. It wasn't hers and it had his own personal information on it (yes I know it was his friends, and her information, but you get my point).
 
Either way, it's already a costly cell phone whose price will probably escalate even more. I only hope it's not at the cost of a life. When gamuts are laid down, and spun, the ripple effects can run out of control.
 
clayj said:
Because they're IDIOTS. They've put exactly ZERO thought into how this is all going to play out. They thought they could take advantage of another person's misfortune and get themselves a $300 phone in the process. Because of their militant stupidity, they're now getting NO reward, the phone will be (or is already) rendered useless, and they've brought a load of heat on themselves. If they had two working brain cells between them, they'd've arranged to turn the phone in at a police station, along with a note of apology.
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I agree the way they reacted when confronted with stolen property was wrong. Heck I even agree with the guy setting up a website with pictures from the phone and being like "here's the jerks who stole my phone!"

What I don't agree with is his posting of street addresses (apparently the fake was quite close to the girls real house) e-mails, myspace pages, yahoo accounts and saying "hey, let's harass them!"

You hit the nail on the head when you said they were idiots, from the looks off the pics they are probably low income and less educated then the victim (whom had enough money to replace the sidekick in a week).

At the end of the day this looks like rich people harassing poor people over a cell phone, which as stated before, the victim LOST on there own.
 
What does it say about me that I just read the whole thing? Took me almost an hour( im a slow reader) :). It's addicting I tell you, Im gonna havt to keep checking for updates. I hope he gets it back, and I what hes doing is great, although I don't know that I would go this far, mostly because he's spending more on bandwidth, etc... then the sidekick is worth. But to each his own.
 
dornoforpyros said:
I dunno, it still seems to me that we have an adult, with lots of technical experience bullying a teenager around. That says a lot for his maturity.
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I think that I can see your point. Just read the site, and it does seem that Evan has become obsessive over this.

But this teenager has used her "friends" to raise the ante. Also this teenager seems to be old enough to have a child, so she should be old enough to take it on the chin for her lack of morals with the Sidekick.


Black&Tan said:
I think you're on to something here. We all know, or at least should know, what's right and wrong. Yet, there's no one to enforce it anymore. The police are concerned with "serious" crimes and don't have time for small issues, regardless of how important they are to us. We feel helpless against small injustices, and slanders. The reckless drivers are rarely caught. The red light runners too! Even car thefts and burglaries are rarely investigated. You file a report and that's usually the end of it. Instead, if we want anything done, we are left to our own devices. I don't advocate violence to achieve justice, but what he's doing, I don't have a problem with.
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Amen. My sister lives in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Car theft is so high there, the police do little - seen it firsthand when my sisters house was broken into, and her truck stolen.

todd2000 said:
What does it say about me that I just read the whole thing? Took me almost an hour( im a slow reader) :). It's addicting I tell you, Im gonna havt to keep checking for updates. I hope he gets it back, and I what hes doing is great, although I don't know that I would go this far, mostly because he's spending more on bandwidth, etc... then the sidekick is worth. But to each his own.
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Me too. :)

Says a lot about her parents too. Never could bring anything in to the house without my parents knowing about it.
 
I just checked the site and it seems that this situation has come to it's conclusion.

Below is the newest update to the site.

How NOT to steal a Sidekick II said:
Update #51 June 20th, 10:05 p.m. Wow... I have no words to express how I feel right now. Vindication, appreciation, relief.... Just some of the words I can think of...

It's OVER. The police picked up Sasha on Thursday night. They also got the Sidekick back. My friend is picking it up tonight. For all the doubters that thought the story was made up, that I was doing this for money, that it was a viral ad, that I had the wrong people.... You are now proven wrong. All in all, you few naysayers don't matter. What matters is all the people that did support the very IDEA of this story...that morality IS important to you. That doing the wrong thing will NOT prevail over doing the right thing. And to show that, my friend is NOT going to press charges against this girl. We both feel that she has learned her lesson. We are not vengeful people. We just wanted what was right...and what was right was for someones property to be returned.

Here is the New York Times FULL page article (with pic) about the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/nyregion/21sidekick.html Three notes to the story... When the mother says that they gave me an address to come pick up the Sidekick, that was the address I posted above...which turned out to be a fake address... Also, she mentions that they bought it at the subways station for $50... Yet they told me (among other stories) they got it from a cabby...and were trying to sell it to me (supposedly) at $100. Sad that the stories are still being made up. Lastly, it wasn't thousands that came to this website...it was MILLIONS... On top of that, according to Google, there are now OVER 401,000 websites pointing to this one: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="How+NOT+to+steal+a+SideKick"&btnG=Google+Search
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lexus said:
At least it is over
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Nice to see your consistant in your well thought out and justified statements lexus... always a joy to read your tome's of work :rolleyes: :p :D

Although seriously its not over until there is confirmation that no lawsuits are brought against the guy for his website. I'm 100% behind the reasoning for the website, but I can see how the folks it was aimed at could consider it harrassment. And if I can understand that, then a lawyer will definitely be able to make a case out of it.

With charges not being brought against Sacha (the actual owner was very nice to do that) you would hope that they would leave it alone and move on... but from the contact the guy had with them, you get an impression they want something from this experience... we shall see.
 
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