So, there’s a guy I’ve helped out a couple of times who knocked on the van at 3:30 a.m.

He asked if he could use my phone to make a call, and I stupidly agreed. I was concerned that this would be the outcome as he was on his bike. He makes his call, and then bikes off.

I have no way of contacting the police, but even if I did, they wouldn’t care.

I’m supposed to make it to an appointment tomorrow, but it required a Lyft. Which, without a phone, can’t be done.

I have no idea what to do. Even if I had Amazon Prime, I have no address.

ETA: So, there’s now a Pixel 10a headed to a burner friend who let me use his address, ordered by my mom (who, because she’s not in Austin herself, does not have the option of the locker nearby … I was going to show her a screenshot, but my Amazon account has been dormant, so now they want to do 2FA for me to order anything, which is difficult without my phone). The window is 5-10 p.m., which is cutting things really close if it shows up past his bedtime (he’s about as far from me as one can be while remaining in city limits).

I’d have preferred a straight 9a replacement, but Google is being Google, and the 10a is currently cheaper. I give zero shits about the supposed “AI” improvements, but I don’t have a shitton of price elasticity.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      4·
      12 days ago

      I did use the Google site before posting, but I had location services turned off for privacy reasons, and that is coming back to bite me in the ass.

  • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    12 days ago

    I have no way of contacting the police, but even if I did, they wouldn’t care.

    You can visit the police in person or ask to borrow someone’s phone, but also one of us can contact the police for you and ask them to drive out to you if you want. I’d at least make a police report even if they do nothing about it. Also, share it around your community, and someone might show up with two of their friends and “ask” for your phone back.

    Seems pretty fucked up to steal from someone who lives out of their car, though.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      It’s very fucked up. I get the impression his whole plan on “visiting” me was stealing my phone. Unfortunately, I know he has a gun, which affected my sleep-deprived decisions.

      Looks like there’s a chance I can still get a replacement off Amazon today. I’ve got my mom on the order and a friend willing to take the delivery.

      It’s really disorienting to not have a phone.

      I have a couple of people I could try to nudge (ironically because he introduced me to them), but at this point, I have a prosthodontist appointment tomorrow, and I need to be able to order a Lyft.

      Needless to say, I’ll not be willing to let him into the van again.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      What’s additionally fucked up is the state of our police department. There’s zero point in filing a report. They simply do not care about the livelihoods of residents; essentially, unless there’s a current risk of bodily harm, they just don’t respond.

      Just sitting in a parked car with another squad car (well, they’re usually SUVs at this point) is way easier than doing any policing.

      This is simply the reality we’ve come to accept. We nominally have a police force, but they’re still salty after an attempt to divert funds to things like social services and mental health that got the Legislature called into a special session a few years back to make it illegal to lower police budgets. (I shit you not, y’all; anytime Austin attempts anything progressive, Hot Wheels calls a special session to make the new ordinance/plans illegal at the state level.)

      They’ve now got a giant budget, but still do nothing, because that’s just easier. No matter how fucked you think Texas is, I guarantee it’s worse.