What To Do When Your Phone Is Stolen & How To Prevent The Worst From Happening

Happy Friday Babes!

I’m not going to lie, my week has been quite the struggle since coming home from New York. Not only did I leave the city without a phone, but I also caught the like worst sinus infection ever, so the struggle has seriously been real – lol!

While it has oddly been nice not really having a phone and or having the ability to constantly scroll through social media, it’s also kind of a necessity for my job – lol. Thankfully, Colton’s mom is a godsend and had an old iPhone that I’ve been able to use until insurance sends me my new one. The only problem is that this phone is like, really old (lol). Instagram doesn’t really work on it (especially stories), it keeps crashing, the speaker doesn’t fully work and it takes a year to load anything. So basically I have been having to borrow Colton’s phone to upload everything, constantly sit next to a charger incase it crashes and just learn some good old fashioned patience.

Losing your phone or having it stolen happens to people everything single day and you don’t really think about it, until it happens to you. I know first hand it sounds silly complaining about it, but if you think about it, social media aside, our whole lives are on our phones. At least for me that is. Almost my whole business is run through my phone, my email is on there, my bank accounts, apple pay…the list goes on.

So I thought I would take today to actually share with you guys my story, things I could have done to avoid this situation and steps you need to immediately take if this ever happens to you.

HOW MY PHONE WAS STOLEN

Saturday night after the Reward Style Party, I went out with my fashion week roomies to continue on the night a little bit and to celebrate our last night in the city. My friend Tayler and I were standing at the bar ordering drinks (Note – this wasn’t like a club, it was more of a college bar scene) then immediately went to find a place to sit. As soon as we sat down, we noticed both of our phones were gone. We immediately got up and ran back to the bar to find them. The manager (who was so kind) immediately started to help us, found Tayler’s phone ditched outside but mine was nowhere to be found. Of course, we were trying to track my phone via Find My iPhone but at this point, that function had been turned off and my phone was no longer even showing up as my registered phone.

The manager then went upstairs to view the security footage and in the recordings, you can clearly see a really sketchy looking couple standing right behind Tayler and me, opening our satchels and taking out our phones. After talking to the Manager, Apple, the Police, iCloud and my Insurance, it’s safe to say that these were most likely professionals. They ditched Tayler’s phone because it’s older and was cracked, where as mine was a brand new iPhone 8+, so they could make a pretty penny off of it. It also seems as if they had someone waiting outside with a laptop or something where they were able to immediately reset my phone before I ever even knew it was gone.

Yes, I had a password and had taken all of the precautions to avoid this, but none of it really seemed to matter. It sucks, but there are ways to get around passwords….The worst for me was that for some reason, my phone hadn’t been connecting to wifi as often as normal that week, so my iCloud wasn’t backing up and pretty much all of my photos I took throughout the whole week were gone and never backed up to my iCloud….which for me is a big deal because photos are my business lol.

So after a nightmare of a Sunday and spending over 8 hours talking on the phone to my Insurance, Apple, iCloud and the Police….. Here are a few takeaways that I have learned throughout this experience.

PRECAUTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

Always have a password and thumb print verification. While there are sketchy professionals that can get past this, it stills makes it more difficult for them and keeps you safe from the average thief. Without a password, you’re basically just giving your information to them and making their lives easier.
Make Sure your ‘Find My iPhone’ is Turned On: Even though mine was turned on, I did learn in the process that your phone doesn’t just automatically have it turned on. When I was on the phone with iCloud, they said a shocking number of people don’t have theirs turned on for the mere fact that they didn’t know they had too. Which I totally believe because I didn’t know that either and the only reason mine was turned on is because of Colton. So go in your settings, tap your name then tap iCloud, scroll down to Find My iPhone and click “Turn On”.
Have your iCloud set to Back Up Automatically. I thought mine was set to do this….but it wasn’t…. so here is what you want to do. (1) Connect to Wifi (2) Go to settings, tap your name and then tap iCloud (3) Scroll down and tap iCloud Back Up (4) Switch it on. This should make your iPhone back up to your iCloud automatically, every time you connect to wifi.
Back Up Your Phone Manually as Much as Possible: Even though your phone is now set to back up every time you’re on wifi, it doesn’t always work (first-hand experience over here!) so just to be safe, if you ever find yourself sitting on the couch connected to your wifi, just follow those same steps as listed above but underneath where you switched iCloud Back Up On – Tap on “Back Up Now” at the bottom.
Make Sure you have Insurance through your Provider that Covers Theft. I bought my phone through Apple, so I was terrified to learn that Apple’s Insurance doesn’t cover theft. Thankfully, our provider (att) does. Colton and I are clearly children who are still on his parent’s plan (lol) but I’m so thankful for it because of course, his parents have insurance set up that covers theft, so I didn’t have to buy a whole new phone!
Keep Your Guard Up(!!): Even if you’re in a space that you feel comfortable or safe…. just be aware. Don’t keep your satchel behind you, but instead in the front of you with your hand on it. Don’t leave your purse at the table and etc.

STEPS TO TAKE IF YOUR PHONE IS STOLEN

Use Find My iPhone: Yes, once again, in my case this wasn’t an option and they can always turn your phone off but it’s still the best place to start. Not all thieves are like mine. Someone may take your phone and be too dumb to turn it off or know what to do with it. They could also turn it back on….you just never know.
Change Your iCloud Password and Sign Out of All Devices: Find a computer or use a friends phone and immediately change your iCloud password so that they cannot access any more of your information. When you change your password, a message will pop up asking you to sign out of everything – and you want to click yes!
Change Your Email Password & Other Accounts You’re Worried About: While changing your iCloud should suffice, its a good extra step to at least change your email password…or for me, my Instagram password as well. Especially your email though incase they try to get into anything else on your phone and send password resets to your email.
Change the Number on Your Security Notifications: You know when change a password or something, or even login someplace new and it sends a verification number to your phone? You can change the number where that code is sent. How to do it: (1) On a computer, in the upper left-hand corner, click the apple sign and then click on System Preferences (2) Once you’re in System Preferences, click iCloud (3) Under your name on the right hand side, click Account Details (4) Click Security – It should then take you to the same page where you would change your password and etc. (5) Here you’ll see a large section in the middle that says “Trusted Phone Numbers” (6) In that section, first click the plus sign and add a trusted phone number (according to Apple, you should always have a second phone number in there) (7) Once that new number is added, click on your number and hit the minus sign to delete it. Note – You can always add your number back!
Call Your Phone Carrier: If at this point you know that you’re not going to get your phone back…call your carrier and start the process of getting a new phone. If you have theft insurance, the process should be easy but you will still have to pay anywhere in-between $200-$300 for a new phone. Which I know this sucks.. but is still better than buying a whole new phone.
File a Police Report: It may seem silly because at this point you’re probably not getting your phone back…. and in my case, I felt like the nypd had bigger problems than a silly phone being stolen…. but it’s necessary and you can do it online. If your phone was stolen at a certain place, like restaurant or bar, that place could be being targeted and the more cases that are reported to authorities, the more they can help watch that space and potentially catch or stop the person who is doing this.

Alrighty! Well, I hope that was helpful!!

This isn’t exactly the lighthearted or fun Friday post I normally like to do – lol…but I thought it was an important one!

Plus, since it is the weekend, if anything did, unfortunately, happen to one of ya’ll’s phones, at least you would have read this post, taken the precautions and would know exactly what to do!

Have a great weekend though! Stay safe and see ya’ll next week!!:)

xo,

Lauren

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