Weird situation in my City Centre today !

[Anonymous]

Hi

Whilst waiting outside a City Centre shop this afternoon while my partner was shopping inside ,I was approached by a youth asking if he could borrow my phone to ring his Mum.

Now at approx 18 years of age he and the girl of a similar age he was with would have left me standing, if they took off , so I said Sorry....No.

I then observed this pair approaching passers by.

I was surprised at ~

A, People thought nothing of handing over a £300 + smartphone to a complete stranger.

B, Let them dial whatever number which yes could have been their Mum, but could have also been some dodgy number or even an international one.

C, I observed them approach several people even after making a call - watching them dial into the phone several times.

They were handing round the bus stop asking people waiting for the bus.

They didn't catch the bus but just moved on.

Something not right there. 😞

[Cleoriff]

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@jonsie wrote:

People are quite gullible I'm sad to say. You would need a spanner to get a 50 pence piece out of my hand, let alone a £500 smartphone.

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Oh I agree @jonsie  I may not know everything there is to know about my phone...but it would be tantamount to someone saying .... gimme your handbag...

A knee to the groin area is what they would get instead.....

[Anonymous]

People that gullible or stupid shouldn't have a smartphone in the first place as they won't keep it long handing it over like that 😞

[Anonymous]

To add..... when he handed over the phone ,and then went to look at the bus time tables ,he also didn't keep eye contact on his property !

Surely the better avenue would be to ask them to insert their own earphones (as they did have their own) , the owner then dial the number ,and then the stranger talk via the mic in their own earphones while the owner kept a grip on the phone.

It's a built in urge to want to help in me but as said it's not a common sense move to let a stranger take ownership of such an expensive piece of hardware connected to a mobile phone account which for the more scrupulous is a cash cow.

😞

[Anonymous]

Of course if the phone was stolen in this way no insurance would pay out either.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous That is being unduly harsh. At this distance it is easy to criticise but surely the victim deserves a lot of credit for being willing, if naive, to give the stranger the benefit of the doubt. A hard way to learn a lesson perhaps but we should not make it harder by insulting his intelligence and questioning his altruism.
Gerry

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous that is your opinion I wouldn't hand my phone over to a total stranger and in this day and age someone doing that is asking to have it stolen I don't see what is harsh about that considering everyone else on the thread agrees it was a stupid thing to do.

[jonsie]

I agree. The guy was a total idiot.

[Anonymous]

This person handed over an iPhone 5s which retail at from £549 to £709 to someone they didn't know. Put a distance between them and his phone of approx 2 metres ,and didn't even keep eye contact as he approached the bus stop to look at bus times.

Not a very bright move.

Not again mentioning he let them dial several times and didn't even check after what they had actually dialled.

Reckless at best a possible expensive learning curve at worse.

@Anonymous and @jonsie have a very valid opinion.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:


@Anonymous and @jonsie have a very valid opinion.

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The owner of the phone may have been unwise and ill advised but that does not justify an insulting and intemperate remark such as "the guy was a total idiot".   It is certainly an opinion but in the absence of any real evidence as to the chap's intellectual capacity there must at the very least be some doubt as to the validity of that opinion.

Nevertheless I acknowledge that I am swimming against the current in this thread and reading between the lines can readily see that a similar label has been metaphorically atteched to me.  So I will leave you all to your ruminations without further comment from me.

Thanks for your help in the past.

Gerry 

[Anonymous]

As you also have your own valid point @Anonymous

I appreciate all opinions and perspectives.