Lost my phone! Need some advice!

Hey guys, I have a dilemma. I lost my phone about 2 days ago, at Disneyland(not the happiest place on earth for me anymore). Anyway, it was dead when I lost it(LG Chocolate/vx8500). Needless to say, my parents didn't have insurance so yeah, no replacement phone.

My question is, Do I /have/ to go through Verizon to get another phone? Can I go through a third party? Like ebay, amazon, or somewhere else and just activate it through verizon? With Cingular, GSM allowed me to replace my phone super easy. I looked at another post and people said I could buy a Verizon phone on ebay. But my question is, how do you activate it through them when it's on someone elses plan? Thanks much.

First thing you need to do is report the phone lost/stollen to your carrier so's you dont get a wack bill and the phone will not be reusable. ever.

make sure you do that right away... and i don't think verizon covers if you lose it

EDIT - Didn't read your post well enough, well I know you can change prepaid services from phones, try calling the verizon help service, they should tell you

You will need to make sure that the phone you buy is a Verizon branded phone. No other device can be activated on Verizon's network. If the seller is legitimate, the phone you buy will not currently be activated on a line of service. So, you should be able to activate the new phone with no problems. Just beware of unscrupulous sellers.

...are you trying to keep the loss a big secret fron the 'rents? Seems to me they would help you to activateif there is an issue...

I'm sorry to hear about your loss I hope a character finds your phone and turns it in. Too bad the phone wasn't charged so they could call your dad or someone. But on the other hand it would be of no use since you need a charger. I would call Verizon to temporarily disconnect the line until you find the phone or get a new one. No one can make calls on the ESN.

You don't 'have' to go through verizon to buy a phone. For example, my last phone, a moto Q I purchased off ebay used. You have to be careful with this sometimes though. There are people on there selling stolen phones. Verizon will not activate a stolen phone. Make sure the seller has good feedback or sells a lot of phones if you decide to go this route. And do what paul said above...