The Rescue Moto

21^st December 2016 was just another Wednesday in my vacations. I watched the new star wars movie on Monday (at PVR Pacific Gold which is by far the best cinematic experience I’ve had so far) and was writing my review of it (which you can find here). I talked to a few people, made a plan to watch Dangal this friday, watched a few videos like any other day; finished my review by evening (again here). After completing my review I sent out the links to the blog to many people (a thing which I personally hate to do). Then as regular, it was time for my evening workout. I left my home around 7:45pm and reached the gym by 8:00pm. Changed my attire; grabbed my shaker, towel and phone and kept them on some machine. It was chest day. This was routine. I used to do this everyday since a long time. As I knew most of the people in the gym as well, it never occurred to me that a theft can ever take place. So I just kept my stuff openly. The shaker and towel are necessary stuff but I also had a habit of checking the phone for missed calls or check my twitter. Then it happened. Around 9:00-9:15, I went away a little too far to use a machine and complete my set. By the time I returned, my phone was gone! Rest of my stuff was there but no phone. I informed my trainer and he called on it but the phone was switched off. Nothing was to be done now. We can’t track a dead device. Whoever took it might’ve gone by now. I accepted that I’ve lost my phone due to my recklessness and went home around 9:30pm after telling all the trainers and the owner to keep an eye open if they notice anything but I knew that I’ll never see my phone again. Now at home I immediately started the process to somehow atleast secure the data in my phone. Actually the data inside was more valuable than the phone itself. It had everything- all my accounts, my PINs, my identity proofs, unfinished blog posts, story ideas, music, exclusive wallpapers, college documents and setups of paid apps among other things like photographs. All other data like contacts and calendar were synced with google though so that was no problem. I called Vodafone to block my SIM. Still my whatsapp and paytm wallet were a reason for big concern. I cannot use whatsapp in any other device without my SIM and cannot login to Paytm web portal without the OTP they send on my registered number which was stolen along with the phone. I tried contacting Paytm but to no use. I couldn’t reach a single human on their helpline. At home I used my brother’s phone, much to his dismay, for syncing my google and the only app which I could use, snapchat. Now I had my contacts and my snapchat atleast in my brother’s phone. At night around 12:30am I ordered a new phone from amazon (for which too I couldn’t make payment because I can’t make bank transactions without them sending an OTP on my phone). But still I could revise my payment method in 24 hours. So I had 24 hours to get a new SIM and put it in a phone. I slept around 1:00am thinking to get a similar number new SIM card tomorrow first thing (I hardly slept that night). But then it happened and the real adventure began.

The following morning, that is the morning of 22^nd December 2016, I woke up and checked my mail. And here it was. I had 9 mails from Paytm. Somebody had used my Paytm balance. A metro card recharge of 700. As the day progressed, I found they did few more things- checked my whatsapp as the last seen was of 1:35am on that night; used my paytm for a Rs.30 transaction more and used my Freecharge balance of Rs. 160 too. But among all these things and the 9 mails I received from paytm I discovered something of mighty significance. He (the thief) tried to reset my paytm password 7 times and when he was unsuccessful in doing so, he tried to change the registered email address. This was his huge mistake. He changed the registered email address from mine to his. Aaaandd skadoosh!. I had his email address now. I used somebody’s facebook to search for him (I don’t have facebook as you all know). And I found his profile. That idiot!. Now I had his workplace, school, photos, family details everything but the address and phone number. I couldn’t stop laughing. There was no end to my happiness. Looking at his picture, I wasn’t sure if I had seen this person in my gym or not. He was probably new. But when I scrolled through his photos, I found a pic with one of his friends and I recognized that douche. I remembered him. He used to wear a batman tee everyday and he was new. Now I had two suspects- Sonu Singh (the one I recognized) and Abhijeet Kumar (the one with the mail). Now it was only a matter of time before I go hunting for them. I had my breakfast, talked to a cousin who lives nearby and gathered all my evidence. I printed all the details I had- the mails, the facebook profiles, their photographs (individual and together). Now we could find their addresses from the gym. So we went to the police station at around 11:00am. Told our story and displayed our leads to the SHO and he called an SI who took over our case. The SI was very cooperative throughout. He went to the gym with us, there and then and we got their addresses from the registry. They haven’t even filled their complete addresses. We made the owner to call them and ask the address to complete a routine check. He did and they told us. At first they said they didn’t know the address as they were new to Delhi.

Now it was only a matter of time before we find them and bring them to justice. All the while I was worried for my phone. I wondered they might’ve sold it by now or atleast deleted the data for sure. In the afternoon, the police sent a person to get them from the address but nobody was home. Now came evening of 22^nd December 2016. The police sent people again to the address. This time they found someone. He was a roommate to both our suspects. He was taken to the police station. Pretty soon both the suspects were also assembled in the police station along with their two roommates. They were four people who shared a room including the culprit- Abhijeet Kumar. He was asked to return the phone. He asked the fourth roommate to bring the phone he’d hidden in the kitchen of their home. He and only he was responsible as was found out later. All three of them were oblivious to the theft as they claimed.

So now, we were called at the station around 6pm on 22^nd December 2016. There I found all four of them along with my phone on the SI’s desk. I checked the phone. It was mine but they’d deleted all the data. A complete factory reset. So nothing was there on it. He’d even discarded my SIM somewhere and was using his own in my device. But still, I had the phone back now. We left them in police custody that night and came back home with my two year old phone. So all in all, I did lose all my data and I’m yet to receive the Rs. 890 they stole from my Paytm and Freecharge wallets but I got my phone back. Without even a single scratch on it; with the screen guard and the back cover and the memory card still intact; and that too just within 24 hours. 

If you find this story interesting, then ask the author about the one time he found a corpse on road and it came alive.