[Lazer]

OK, here's the story:

I use a BB model 7290. Tmobile service, if that matters. Connected to company Exchange server. (Is that BES? I think so.)

As I was riding my bike to work on Tuesday, my BB fell out of its holster. I realized it when I got to the office. I tried calling it. No answer. Went immediately to voice mail. I then quickly retraced my path back to the last place I knew I had it (at breakfast at Dunkin Donuts), but did not find it. Went back to the office and reported it as lost to IT and they disabled the service and ordered me a new unit.

Wednesday night my wife gets a call on her cell from a guy who says he's got my BB. He tells her that he called her (of all the people in my BB phone list) because it was the most called number. Then I spoke to him. He said his wife saw it fall off of me and tried to yell out to me, but I was already gone. He wants to return it. Great.

Then he says there's no SIM card. Hmmmm. Fine, Whatever. At least I'll get the unit back and it won't be a total loss.

I go over to his house (which was close to my ride to work, so it makes sense that his wife would have found it) and he gives me back my BB. It's on and active. I.e. he somehow got past the password. Huh?!

Now, it may be possible that when the BB fell it opened the back case and caused the battery and SIM card to fall out, right? And his wife picked up the backing and the battery but not the SIM. Ok, maybe.

But how the heck did he get past the password?

Also, what good would the SIM card do him? I figured if he was gonna steal the SIM, why return the BB itself?

Anyone's guess would be appreciated.

Lazer

[John Clark]

Many times it's set to be able to make calls even while locked. Could that be the case?

[Lazer]

No, only emergency calls are allowed once the BB is locked.

He had full access to my phonebook, email, etc. That's how he found my wife's cell number.

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Lazer, was BB set to lock on a timer, lock when holtered, or did you lock it? Only thing that makes sense to me is it wasn't locked and the finder's actions kept it unlocked.

[John Clark]

He didn't get past the password. It obviously hadn't yet locked, or just wasn't locked when it fell. As far as the sim card, that could be used in another phone to make phone calls unless it's deactivated by your carrier. I'm guessing your IT dept did all that when you reported it lost. It doesn't sound like this guy was trying to steal your sim card, however. I surprised that the sim card actually fell out though. At least you got your device back.

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by Lazer

He had full access to my phonebook, email, etc. That's how he found my wife's cell number.

Do you store your contacts on your SIM card?
Maybe this person took the SIM card out and put it in another device to retrieve the phone numbers from it?
Would certainly offer an explanation as to why it was removed.
Maybe they guy simply forgot to put it back in?

[Lazer]

aiharkness: The BB is set to lock on a timer - 20 mins, I think. I suppose he (or his wife) could have found it before it locked and disabled the locking. Otherwise, he would have had to have done something with the BB every 20 mins from Tues morning 9am until Wed night 9:30pm. Unlikely.

Penguin: I'm not sure where the phone numbers are stored. How would I find out? It would make me uncomfortable to know that he has my children's and friend's contact info, although it's by no means confidential. He told me specifically that he didn't find the SIM card.

[aiharkness]

Even less likely that he cracked the password or got passed it somehow. Perhaps he found the BB unlocked and looked at the call log before the BB timed out and locked. (BTW, one has to enter the password to turn off the password protection. I don't think he disabled it. Are you saying when you got it back, the password was disabled?)

On the SIM card, I believe you have to intentionally save contacts to the SIM card. It isn't done by default, at least not initially. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Lazer]

No, the password was still enabled when I got it back. I just thought he disabled the timeout to never timeout. Maybe that's not an option.

I like your suggestion that he checked the call log immediately after he (his wife, actually) found it. However, his story was that the SIM card and hence the battery fell out when she found it. Therefore, s/he wouldn't have had a chance to check the call log unless she put the battery back in which would have reset the unit and required the password to access it.

So... maybe his story is garbage. He found it, checked the call log, got my wife's number (and everybody else's), took out the battery and SIM card, replaced the battery,.... but then how did he unlock the BB? Remember: when he returned it to me it was unlocked.

One possibility comes to mind: Is there a default password that he could have known or guessed?

Lazer

[juwaack68]

No, there is no default password. Unless he had the password that you had set, there is no way he was able to access the device while it was locked.

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

My bet is he removed the battery when getting the SIM. Before that, BB had not locked and he got phone numnber from call log.

Edit: Doesn't make sense that password was enabled AND he took battery out AND it was unlocked when you got it back. Are you pulling our leg?

[Maverickster]

I'm assuming from this that your password is "PASSWORD" or, perhaps, the more inventive "1234"? HA! I'm not making light (well, actually, I guess I am), but the scenario you're describing is only possible with a guy who either (a) was willing to babysit the device for nearly 2 days every 20 minutes to make sure it never locked or (b) guessed (or cracked) your password. Given the unlikelihood of (a), I'm going with (b). Incidentally, the fact that he even knew what a sim card was is even more indication that (b) was the case.

--Mav "I love BlackBerry Mysteries" rick

[blakeatl]

Seems like the guy is honest. Why return the phone and not the sim? A thief would have just kept the whole dang thing.

[kurrupt_1]

go back to his house and ask him.

[Lazer]

Well, I am truly mystified as to how this could have happened. Yes, it IS possible that he guessed my password. I won't say what it was, but let's just say that corporate IT set it to something that was not very inventive and I never bothered to change it. It wasn't as obvious as "password" or "1234", but it wasn't difficult either.

Interestingly, I just got my new BB - model 8700g, which also came configured from IT with a bad password. HOWEVER, this time they included a little note in the box that tells me that the password and "auto-off" must be activated per corporate policy. The note tells me the current (obvious) password and tells me to change it - by following the directions in the user guide. Of course, the user guide is on the CD. I wonder how many people just keep the default and don't even bother installing the CD. I did change the password this time.

Thanks to all who responded to this thread.

My new challenge is figuring out how to quickly slip this 8700g out of its holster quickly. I remember it took me a while to get used to doing the move with the 7290. This one seems harder though.

Thanks again,
Lazer

[mattk0]

My question is: Why doesn't your company give it to you with a more secure password and set the auto-off automatically through an IT policy (this is assuming they are using a BES)

[Lazer]

<< Why doesn't your company give it to you with a more secure password >>

No question, you're right. They should. Even if they would make it something like "PassworD123" (using upper and lower case and some number), it would be better than what they do now.

<< and set the auto-off automatically through an IT policy >>

They do.