One thing about those old phones, the ones with dials or pushbuttons, that were housed in booths or sat on your table at home: they seldom went lost or got stolen. For all their convenience, modern iPhones have a way of wandering off, and not returning, as was seen in the District the other day.
In one Monday night incident, a woman told police that her telephone vanished near Nationals Park on South Capitol Street.
More to the point, she said, according to a police report, that “an unknown person stole” her iPhone from a food counter while she wasn’t watching it closely.
This happened about 10:20 p.m., at an address given as the 1200 block of South Capitol Street SE. Moreover, it occurred at a time when the baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals, was being played at a stadium in that vicinity if not at the precise address set out in the report.
It might be noted that the Nationals won, while the phone went lost.
Police are categorizing the phone disappearance as a theft.
Another cell phone incident that the police consider to be criminal in nature occurred earlier Monday. In this case, the victim was in the downtown area, somewhere in the 500 block of K Street NW, on the street about 7 p.m. when she lost her phone.
It was not clear just how that happened, but the owner in any case was a resourceful person. According to the police account, she tried to locate her phone by calling its number.
Her call was apparently answered. A police account said the person who found the lost phone demanded money for returning it.
Apparently undaunted, the owner, according to the police account, agreed to meet the person who had her phone.
But, as it turned out, police said, the finder never appeared at the scheduled meeting.
They are classifying the loss of the phone as a theft.
