Barcelona pickpocket swipes Microsoft secrets?
An unnamed Telstra executive is one Windows Mobile phone lighter this afternoon, thanks to a Barcelona pickpocket. Which would hardly be news were it not for the fact that this particular phone featured an as-yet-unreleased version of Microsoft's mobile offering. The phone was given to Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo to show off to his …
...with OSS, it wouldn't matter as much! Discuss!
...Being placed into a security-marked container and sent off on a dispatch rider in the direction of Hutchinson Communcitaions, with instructions that i-Mate, Nettcom and Fujitsu would like to look at it, next, and that negotiations with Apple are at 'an advanced stage'?
Oh, colour me cynical.
I can guess where his phone was lifted; the prostitutes on La Rambla are seriously out of control, it's non-stop attempted pickpocketing and feeling up :-(
On holiday in Barcelona last month we found the pickpockets on La Ramblas were quite brazen then. This wasn't merely "passive" pickpocketing but deliberate obstruction-and-distraction (huge boobs!). We discovered that open-fronted coats/jackets are an invite to trouble - so suit-jacket conference-attire would be inadvisable. Having personally caught one pickpocket in the process of shimmying towards my inner coat pocket (containing nothing more than maps and train-timetables!) lessons were learned.
You only have to observe how the regulars remain button- and zipped-up and tightly clutch their bags to see that pickpocketing is perceived as an ever-present threat.
Conspiracy over targetted pilfering maybe, but I'd guess it's equally possible that the phone was nicked by a run-of-the-mill ner-do-well. They may not even know what they've got.
Nawwww. Procurement specialist for thepiratebay.org.
You mean the amalgamation of these two companies - in the phone's software - is actually worth reporting?
DID NOT WANT!
(Did you expect any other icon?)
Ah Sol, you need to be a bit more careful.
I live about 15 miles up the coast. Apart from the ladies of the night on the Ramblas targetting well-refreshed tourists, I don't think the city is any worse than any other. I feel safer walking around on my own at two or three in the morning than I would in a typical English market town.
"The phone was given to Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo to... test the interface...."
"Pickpockets are endemic in Barcelona during the congress, and with fewer attendees they're having to work extra hard to pick a pocket or two this year. So one of them seems to have struck it lucky with the >>unnamed executive<< charged with looking after the handset."
Unnamed executive?! BWA?!! Didn't you name him? You know, when you said the phone was give to Sol Trujillo, CEO of Telestra. Right, I thought so.
Grabbing my coat with my name on it that doesn't name me.
A prototype of buggy bloatware isn't worth anything. The thief will probably give it back.
Winmo 6.5 is Running a treat on my Touch HD :) and no it's not his!!
Well that's about all it's worth is it not, maybe less given what's on it, probably have to pay someone to take it off him..
That the thief must have been really disappointed!
the 'pickpocket' myateriously left the phone at exactly the same bar and indeed the same table that the executive had been sitting at only minutes earlier.
Or was it the same taxi ?
Cynical moi !
Pick pocketing, bag-snatching and robbery are endemic in central Barcelona, mainly due to a small number of criminals who are known to the local police, but the police do nothing unless someone ends up stabbed in hospital. You can be robbed within yards of a police officer, and their only response will be to tell you to go and make a statement at the police station (which will take 2-3 hours due to the apathy of the police and the number of people queuing ahead of you to report that they have been robbed too, if you passport was stolen you can add another half day at the UK consulate getting a temporay replacement to re-enter the UK on). This streetcrime amounts to millions of euros per year in thefts from tourists, maybe with some VIP victims and bad publicity the city will start doing something about it.
Time for someone to help realize my lates invention: The Barcellona Grenade Phone.
The phone, in reality a worthless shell with a core made of a small amount of C4 and a pin-activated detonator, all wrapped with an incendiary paste.The pin is attached with a 10lb breaking strain coupling to the phone body. A ring on the pin is tethered by means of light, 100lb breaking strain cord to the would-be victim's clothing, the string being gathered in such a way as to be able to pay out to its selected length (say 20ft or so).
Thief steals phone in front of police station and legs it. About two seconds later his hand/pocket/"buttock area" is engulfed in a fireball, to general disinterest of all. Victim watches smoldering theif screaming and thrashing around with satisfied smile on face. Police continue ignoring everyone.
A few exploding phone incidents is all it should take to ensure that all future thefts in Barcellona will take place within easy staggering distance of a Hospital Emergency Room. Such places are very clearly marked, making them easy for the tourist or phone-laden executive to avoid. Crime wave over. QE2.
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