Stolen Cell Phones

Hi, I just read a thread down below about someone that had their cell phone stolen and the guy wanted $200 to give it back. Someone mentioned that if the phone was brought in to a Bell store to be activated they would check the serial number and confiscate the phone. This is not true, at least not in British Columbia. I had my cell phone stolen in February and I asked them that same thing and they said no they wouldn't keep the phone. They wouldn't activate it, but for some reason they're not allowed to just keep the phone. I don't know why, it seems really stupid. I would have replied in the original thread but it was closed. I just wanted to let people know. Maybe it's not like that everywhere.. I really hope not.

We had a similar situation in our store once. The RCMP was asked the question, and here is the answer:

No, you (the store) cannot keep a phone. Unless it can be proven that the phone has been stolen, the store cannot simply assume that. It's quite possible that the person bought the phone from someone who's account owed money, or maybe the phone was reported lost, the customer bought a new handset, found the old one and decided to sell it since they already bought a new one.

So unless the store can contact the original owning customer and ask them, they can't legally hold the phone. In fact, the store can be fined / sales rep charged with theft if the phone turns out not to be stolen.

That said, anytime I get a phone like this that looks / feels iffy, I let the person who brought it in know that it's been reported as stolen, and that the original account holder has been contacted. In all cases so far, the person dropped the phone, got up and made a run for the door.

But again, if the person said F*ck you I'm taking my phone with me, there's nothing I could have done about it.

Yea it's unfortunate they can't do more, but the law is odd that way. If a phone is reported stolen and the report hasn't been lifted, the store should be able to hold the phone until the original owner is contacted and confirms either yes it's still missing, or no I sold it or gave it away.

That's good though that people usually drop the phone and leave At least some people get their phones back. I never found out what happened to mine. Good thing I had a spare and it wasn't an expensive phone.