My iPhone 5 was stolen yesterday

While I was at a local Starbucks on a conf call using Skype.

If I got the the sequence of events right:

• I had the phone on the table (with my laptop and coffee) 
• a guy approach me while I was on the call
• I thought he was selling the Big Issue paper
• Since I always make the point to support the guys who sell this paper (homeless person trying to get back into work), I bought it from him
• At the time I did find it weird that the copy of Big Issue  was a bit 'used'
• After a couple minutes I noticed my phone gone

So I give the guy credit for his smoothness (nobody in the cafe noticed), and I guess the guy gets two bad Karma points in one go:

• one for stealing and 
• one for stealing from a guy who was trying to help him (by buying the paper)

I hope that who ever gets that phone gets a lot of value from it (and that the money from the sale is put to good use)

Meanwhile, as soon as I noticed the loss:

• I went to iClould , checked on 'where is my device' (offline of course) and set it to remote wipe on next connection to the internet
• Changed my email passwords
• Reported the loss to the Mobile phone operator
• Reported the loss to the police
• Reported the loss to the insurance (who needs the references number from the police)

The device had a pin so I don't think that a normal user would be able to bypass it.

Also I wonder where they are able to use that phone, since the IMEI of the phone (its unique ID) should now be blocked by the networks.

I guess the option is to find somebody who can do a wipe of the phone, including changing its IMEI and OS.

The good news is that I didn't really lose any data, and the most important (technical) asset that I wouldn't want to lose was my laptop, which is still with me (i.e. not stolen :)  )

Yes I should had been a bit more street-smart, but events like this are bound to happen occasionally  and I just hope that they don't happen enough that I need to change my behaviour and focus.