'Free cells = less crime'

2003-10-22 09:58

Antoinette Slabbert

Pretoria - More than half of the thefts in South Africa are for cellphones.

Commander André Pruis, deputy police chief, said at a community meeting in Wonderboom, Pretoria, that police were negotiating with suppliers to give cellphones free to counter this crime.

He said the cost of the phones could be recovered by increasing call or contract costs.

Moira Sheridan, acting head of Cell C corporate communications, confirmed negotiations with police were in progress.

"We cannot comment before they have been completed."

Cell C encouraged users to put stolen cellphones on black lists, because that was the only way to counter the thefts.

CNN has reported that the British home affairs department acknowledged that cellphone thefts had reached epidemic proportions in the United Kingdom.

A third of all thefts in Britain had been for cellphones. Nearly half of the victims, as well as about 80% of the suspects, had been younger than 18.

Amsterdam police apparently used "SMS bombardments" very successfully.

They bombarded stolen cellphones with an SMS message which said: "This cellphone has been stolen and it's a crime to buy or sell it. - The police."

The cellphone can't handle the flood of messages and stops working.

- Beeld