So the day after the last post, my phone was stolen when I was at the grocery store. It was a first generation Pixel that was due to be replaced anyways so in terms of actual cost, at most I lost the $50 or so trade in value for the phone.
Originally the phone was connected to a case in which my car keys (with the keyless fob) was attached to, along with my IDs, and credit cards. I do not carry cash. Initially, with the car keys alone being gone, it could have been about $700 to reprogram and replace (which is freaking ridiculous, btw). As well as paying to replace the word ID and drivers license which would have cost $25 per ID. Cancelling the credit cards were easy enough. And $400 to replace the cell phone, which I was delaying another year since I was saving up for a vacation and the Pixel still worked just fine. There was also the worry that since my IDs had my address on it, the thieves would know where I live and had my house keys so the locks would need to be replaced.
Unfortunately, the store cameras were not facing the aisle my cart was in, so they were not able to confirm who took it. I also reported it to the police, but that didn't do much either. But I suppose the silver lining was that 2 hours later, everything else was returned with the exception of phone being ripped out of the case. I am still going to change my locks as a precaution.
Oh yeah, the feeling after realizing it was gone was one of panic and vulnerability. And the fact that I did not even know anyone's phone number to even call for help was even worse! The only number I knew was literally my own phone number! The grocery store was a 30 minute walk from home and that's what I had to do. It was not a good walk home.
The likeliest culprit was probably a pair of teens hovering around me before it was stolen since it was about 1 min between checking my phone and finding it missing. At least that is my hope because that phone connected to a whole lot of accounts: emails, work, medical, retirement and I am hoping that teenagers are less nefarious in terms of trying to break in and get my personal information. No, I am not the type of person to take compromising photos of myself or anyone (that's just stupid) so at least I don't have to worry about that. Everything was password protected and changing the login credentials would just about block everything out. I am not sure if I set it up so that the memory is wiped after multiple failed attempts of logging into the phone. I did try the Find My Device tool from Google and the phone never reconnected with the network after it was stolen. My hope is that if I did not set it so that the memory is wiped after X failed attempts, that they just did a reset and wiped everything.
There were lots of accounts I had 2 factor authentication to which essentially blocks out many of my accounts until the new phone arrived and the suspended number reactivated.
So I basically spent about 8 hours following the theft on the computer changing passwords and on the phone with various companies in regards to proving my identity to reset the 2 factor authentication. Then I spent the next few days worrying and dealing with follow up issues of not being able to access accounts (including my work accounts, since they require 2FA to access the network).
Not to mention finally getting my new phone, the Pixel 3a and then spending 3 hours in Verizon last Friday trying to get it reconnected to the network so I can get my phone number back and finally re-access some of the 2FA that required my phone number. /Sigh
The theft happened on a Saturday afternoon. That was the weekend I was feeling pretty damn good about the highs previously and was planning on doing another Personal Mini Bootcamp on Saturday and Sunday. The best possible outcome in terms of least $$ associated of having my car keys returned happened. But even a week later, I still feel like shit about it all and just thinking very poorly of humanity in general. Seriously, who the fuck does that? And there's basically nothing I can do about it either.. nothing!
I've basically been derailed since then and had been trying to make myself feel better and not worry about the what ifs. It has been a lot less productive in learning to code and I have been feeling pretty demotivated. Compare the previous week of 22 hours of very focused coding and learning to barely getting to 10 hours in. And that is only because I had to make myself watch some videos on foundational JS or CSS to at least keep it in my mind, not that I was actively coding or anything. It's been a week and I am not sure how to get myself motivated again. Ugh.
I was attempting to do another mini bootcamp at least one 8hr day of coding this weekend and not just watching videos. But I find myself procrastinating by cleaning the house or other menial chores, playing video games, or even using my family as an excuse to stay away from the computer and generally keeping my mind off things.
I know I need to give myself the permission to do what I need to do to feel better, but the fact that I am cognizant of how much the theft and invasion of privacy is affecting me makes me upset even more. /Sigh
I'll do what I have to do and hopefully my next post is back to normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment