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Las Vegas, the amazing place that sucks souls, wallets and dignities, is also really good at swallowing mobile phones. Drunk, partying, WHOOPS. And whenever a phone is lost, people who use location services to find their lost phones always seem to track it back to the same place: Wayne Dobson’s house. But the thing is, Wayne Dobson never stole a phone. Instead, a glitch with the US network Sprint is making it appear as if their phone is inside Dobson’s house—even if it’s not.
It’s so bad that Dobson has posted a sign outside his house that says:
NO LOST CELL PHONES!!
This location gives a false “phone locator” position due to a cell tower behind the home. Please contact the North Las Vegas police and file a report
NO LOST CELL PHONES!!
For the past two years, the poor guy has been interrupted at all hours (it is Vegas, after all) by people screaming and accusing him of stealing iPhones that he’s never actually stolen. It’s so frequent that on weekends, Dobson sleeps near the door because he knows that people are eventually going to come knocking on his door.
The problem started in 2011 when a couple came knocking. Then another person. Then more. After a while, people started showing up with tablets and laptops pointing his house as the exact location of their lost phone. But it’s never inside his house. Even worse, police are sometimes sent to his house from nearby people who call 911. The GPS coordinates of the 911 phone call reveal Dobson’s house as the origin (even though he never called).
So what’s the deal? Why is the location always so screwy? It might be a nearby Sprint cell tower that’s affecting the coordinates of phones in the area. Experts think it may be a problem with the switchboard, that software is “incorrectly translating coordinates to Dobson’s house”. Whatever it is, it sure sucks to be accused of stealing phones when you didn’t do anything. Dobson might as well just steal one and be done with it. [LVRJ]
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That’s disgraceful! – App should be removed from store or disabled until this can be fixed.
Drastic measures most of you will say, but just really think about it; could you stand being woken up almost every night having some random screaming at you? Even worse if they started getting physical or you were out and they decided to take the law in to their own hands and break in to get it back.
Its the mobile networks fault, it sounds like all location based apps malfunction in the area.
I didn’t say who’s fault it was.
This app should be removed until whoever is responsible fixes it. If that lies with the network then they should fix it, but that doesn’t change that fact that this app is available and is causing this man alarm and distress.
The creators of the app should be the ones chasing the network.
If you took that course of action, any and all apps that use location data would have to be removed, all to solve one man’s problem. It lies with the network and the network alone, nothing to do with any app store or software company…
I just hope he doesn’t get seriously hurt by some crazy person, doesn’t matter if it’s one guys problem or not.
Your point about location based services is not really valid either, most location based services are accepted by the person using the app and don’t say “hey here’s who stole something of yours, now go get them”…they’re more like “here’s a pic I took and where”.
The article also said the the police were going to his house because when people phoned them his house on the location data, should they shut 911 down too?
If you took the Find My iPhone app out of the App Store, surely that would upset most of Apple’s customers? If I still had my iPhone and went to use Find My iPhone because it was lost or stolen only to find out the App had been removed due to the network near 1 person’s house. Sure I can understand how annoying that must be for the bloke but it isn’t an App problem at all.
many other articles on this include the information: “Clark County zoning accidentally assigned a cell phone tower’s location to his home address.”
so maybe Clark County planning department are the ones you’re looking to hang.
not sure why Mr. Chan left this out.
speaking as someone who a) loves phones, and b) has had their’s stolen recently, I’m surprised the bloke isn’t dead by now.
Sue to cell tower operator for not solving a problem that leads to his life being destroyed.
Or, you know. Move house…
man, that would be a shock to the new owners… i’m pretty sure you have to declare when someone is murdered / died in a house for sale, but what about the 1000 people a week losing their phone pissed up in vegas?
His dog stole all the phones and they are now buried in his back garden.
I would hang a couple of katanas and rifles near the entrance. It should stop all the screaming and accusation when you open the door.
His life must be a nightmare; he should be compensated by whoever turns out to be responsible for his location being made the point of the lost phone checks.
He needs to get legal with Sprint. Inform them officially and then tell them you will be charging everytime they send someone round his house. Maybe a £1000 fee. That would stop it quickly.