Sidekicks are “Magnets for Muggers”
The Providence Journal has a great article up about cell phone robberies that continuously mentions the Sidekick. Apparently the Sidekick Slide is the most popular Sidekick and the one most commonly stolen. We kind of wonder how much research the author of the article actually did. Some great quotes from the article:
Martinez, 18, of Warwick, a self-described cell-phone addict, now counts herself a casualty of the urban cell-phone culture. More than one-third of the robberies in Providence this year are cell-phone robberies, and Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said “a good number” of the robberies last year were the same.
A band around the LX model glows blue to signal an incoming message.
“This is why they steal the phone, because it lights up,” Martinez said. “It’s amusing to people …”
Standing on the sidewalk on Hamilton Street where she was attacked, Nathalie described what happened on that day last winter.
“I thought it was one of my friends playing around with me” at first. “When I looked back, I hit him with my purse. But I had my nails done [that day], so I couldn’t, really, like, fight with him and stuff … I was scared. I was really scared.”
Martinez had a big bill to pay — about $500 — after the Riverwalk mugging. She did not get through right away to T-Mobile, her service provider, to report the loss. In the 13 hours the robber had her phone before she gave notice, he ran up the bill by downloading wallpaper and ringtones — each time for a fee — and making interstate calls and calls to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. T-Mobile wouldn’t waive the charges.
She now stays up late at night on her fourth cell phone, a Sidekick LX, which she keeps taped to a living room end table when it’s not in use so that when friends come over to her house, their light-fingered companions don’t lift it.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
im glad im not the only one whos figured this out…. jus last April in was robbed for my sidekick LX at gun point… but no sidekicks worth my life, so i let him have it. Now i dont even let people kno i have a sidekick (As much as i would like to). after having 4 SK 3s, and 2 LXs… im making my 2008 the last sidekick i get for a while. i dont want to get robbed anymore.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:49 am
yeah about 2 days ago my girlfriend just got robbed for her sidekick slide but we called and cancelled simcard i cnt stand stupid ass people and hiptop3 i stay on ur website 24/7 and u guys are the best but someway we need to figure out how to get a tracking device on sidekicks ASAP!!!!!
November 7th, 2008 at 5:56 am
That idiot should have had to pay the huge bill. Who the hell waits hours and hours to report something like that to their carier? Some punk kid literaly grabed my Sidekick Color right out of my hands at a bus stop, I tried to catch the creep but he maniaged to get away. IMMEADIENTLY I called T-mo to disactivate the phone (not just the SIM you can get the whole phone perm, locked and disabled forever if you know the iemi#). The rep actually suggested calling the phone to see if the thief would return it(!). RIGHT, whatever! I said just disactivate it NOW. That was it, done, no extra charges and the a-hole got big fat nothing. The call to coustomer service is FREE so even if I had no money I could have made it. Why did she wait so long? Had to go get drunk first or something? Come on, give me a break! And a SECOND robbery also?!? PLEASE! I never take my Sidekick out in public now and I’m always armed now in anyevent, they WILL have to kill me or die themselves (or both) if tthey want my Sidekick it will be pried from my cold dead hands! Peace.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:28 am
maybe because she couldn’t get find a phone for hours?
And u said u called immediately so u must have been carrying 2 phones….
November 7th, 2008 at 7:05 am
No .there is a new invention in most civilized parts of the United States called “pay phones” (which is why I mentioned the call to customer service is free ~and DUH). To be 10+ hours from a pay phone she would have had to have been stranded on the island from Lost or something. Give me a break, she should have had to pay more for being that stupid. Ten again it’s obvious IQs have droped a LOT in recient years. Still it’s no excuse.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:27 am
she was stranded on an island didnt you read the article?
November 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It depends on what time of day the incident happened as to whether or not she could reach T-Mobile right away and get her service canceled. Don’t forget pay phones are not as ubiquitous as they once were, so I wouldn’t be so quick to call her stupid.
However, I do think she should write a stern letter to T-Mobile and I also hope she reported the incident to the police so that she has some kind of documentation that she was a victim of a crime.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:36 am
wtf why is the slide being stolen from people? it’s a peice of shit. if your gonna steal a sidekick steal a real one like the LX or the 08’… shit even the I.d or the 2
November 8th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Oh boy, now there will probably be the usual “the Slide is best!” rebuttal, this is just asking for trouble… For the record I have an LX but for some people the Slide is better, it’s a matter of preference. In any event maybe the Slide is more popular a theif’s target because it’s rarer being discontinued and all? Just a thought….
November 9th, 2008 at 10:25 am
same thing happened to me this past summer, but in my sitch. there were 2 really tall guys and they ‘attempted’ to take my lx at gun point. i was going to my summer job, and i heard them walking up behind me, and one of the idiots tried to grab it off of my hip, but i pushed his hand away (natural reaction), and the other one tried to scare me with his gun…….that remained in between his jeans throughout the entire 4 minute ordeal. i had gotten it for my birthday, (waited over a year and a few months) and it just so happened that i was bored with it, and wanted to exchange it for blackberry curve. it was the very last day for me to return it, when they tried their ignorant plot. i know it wouldve been stupid to die for a phone, but wtf! c’mon, u shell out the cash to pay for these expensive items and then to have someone steal it??!?!? ugh, total bullsh*t
anyways- i kept the lx, exchanged it later that day and got the curve
but ive had sidekicks in the past, and that IS NOT going to be my last sidekick.
-and remember, always carry some means of protection, because people in the society today, are total a-holes
November 10th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
lol!! that chick who waited 10 hours was a retard!
December 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I live in providence and if you got an LX you gotta be careful. When I go to the mall or even walk around certain neighborhoods I make sure I got it put away so no one robs me for it… It’s a big thing over here in RI its crazy, happens all the time. Its not just the LX anymore, its the Iphone too. If you got a nice phone in your hands and you get caught with it, you’re gonna get robbed for it. its crazy.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
i was in Atlantic City one day Christmas shopping. While i was standing in line to pay. Some guy started asking me what sidekick i had i wasn’t thinking likje how does this guy know i have a sidekick and here it was sticking out of my back pocket and i said the sidekick lx and still not thinking anything of it i just stood there he tole me i could get in front of him the some guy flings open this door and thats yelling at the guy then after they kick they guy out of the store they told me they were watching him on the cameras and he was trying to pick pocket me. lets just say now my sidekick does not leave my hand!
January 4th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Omg this is crazy I have a sidekick lx and I live in tx but that has never happened to me and now I know not to flip out my phone in certain places. I aint bout to get jacked. And that girl that waited 13 hrs. She’s a dumb***. I mean come on.