I have a dilemma, what should I do here?

[sKunk]

Ok, to start off, what happened is I bought a stolen Droid. No, not on purpous haha. It sucks because I went threw what I thought was the right way to cover my ass. It was on craigslist, and I had him give me the ESN and I called in to Verizon to make sure it was clear, he said everything was good and whatnot so I went and bought it. Bring it home, back up my BB and go to activate it, and it turns out the ESN is not clear. He gave me a different ESN then what was on the phone. :icon_evil: So, I learned my lesson there. Guess I should have taken even more precautions.

Now, before anyone says anything, Verizon has been notified about it, and a full police report has been filled out. I dont want people pointing the finger at me and saying I stole it. Its been over a month and, without really any surprise, I havnt heard any news from the police (even tho I had a name and address where he lives... argggg).

Now heres my question, I found someone selling a Droid with a clear ESN but a broken screen (got dropped and has lines threw it, like dead pixels) for only $20. Would I be able to combine these two phones into a working phone? What would I swap over? Is it hard? Is this just a dumb idea because I dont want to be out $160? lol.

Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks for any input.


Also, the one that was dropped, he said the keyboard is kinda hard to slide, and theres just dead pixels/lines threw the screen, I dont think its cracked tho. The one with the bad ESN is in mint condition.


EDIT: Also sorry if this is in the wrong section, I just kinda skimmed threw the sections and picked this one as it looked like a lot of traffic, and I was looking to buy that other one today so I was hoping for a quick response.

 

[hookbill]

Ok, to start off, what happened is I bought a stolen Droid. No, not on purpous haha. It sucks because I went threw what I thought was the right way to cover my ass. It was on craigslist, and I had him give me the ESN and I called in to Verizon to make sure it was clear, he said everything was good and whatnot so I went and bought it. Bring it home, back up my BB and go to activate it, and it turns out the ESN is not clear. He gave me a different ESN then what was on the phone. :icon_evil: So, I learned my lesson there. Guess I should have taken even more precautions.

Now, before anyone says anything, Verizon has been notified about it, and a full police report has been filled out. I dont want people pointing the finger at me and saying I stole it. Its been over a month and, without really any surprise, I havnt heard any news from the police (even tho I had a name and address where he lives... argggg).

Now heres my question, I found someone selling a Droid with a clear ESN but a broken screen (got dropped and has lines threw it, like dead pixels) for only $20. Would I be able to combine these two phones into a working phone? What would I swap over? Is it hard? Is this just a dumb idea because I dont want to be out $160? lol.

Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks for any input.


Also, the one that was dropped, he said the keyboard is kinda hard to slide, and theres just dead pixels/lines threw the screen, I dont think its cracked tho. The one with the bad ESN is in mint condition.


EDIT: Also sorry if this is in the wrong section, I just kinda skimmed threw the sections and picked this one as it looked like a lot of traffic, and I was looking to buy that other one today so I was hoping for a quick response.

You got stuck with a stolen phone, and that's unfortunate. Your intentions seem good. I just have an issue with taking the parts off what you know is a stolen phone and putting it on another phone. That's like buying parts from a chop shop for a car.

Here's what I would do. Bring the phone into a Verizon Store. Let them worry about contacting the owner, lick my wounds and call it a day.

 

[sKunk]

Yea, and I understand that. Like I said, I talked to Verizon AND the police and no one said anything about taking it. If its just ganna sit in my drawer I might as well do something. Not only that, I dont know the circumstances, this guy could have just reported his own phone stolen to get another one or something.

 

[hookbill]

Yea, and I understand that. Like I said, I talked to Verizon AND the police and no one said anything about taking it. If its just ganna sit in my drawer I might as well do something. Not only that, I dont know the circumstances, this guy could have just reported his own phone stolen to get another one or something.

No nobody said anything about taking it but how about taking the initiative and saying, "Look. I called you guys, the phone has a bad ESN, nobody acts like they care. Take it, I don't want anything to do with it."

I mean I see your point but lets say you do use it for parts (if you have the skills to do this) and then the next thing you know you got the cops at your door asking for it because they finally got around to it? Then what are you going to do?

Probably a scenario that will never happen but you never know.

 

[hookerdj]

there is not a thing you could do with a stolen phone!!!!! and you asking here will just get your thread or posts deleted maybe banned so i would not ever mention this ever again. On top of that i would just try to call verizon tell them you found a fone and hey maybe the guy will give you a reward...sorry pal its your tough luck

 

[sKunk]

lol apparently you didnt read the post.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

As far as I've seen on these and other boards Verizon makes no effort to get a stolen phone back to the original owners. Nor will they give you info as to the identity of the original owner. I hate, hate thieves, but in this case, I would use the parts and put together a working phone.

If there is a way to get the phone back to the original owner, I would. But barring that, I would use the parts.

 

[hookerdj]

just send the phone back to verizon end of story......It will come back on you....

 

[Pudge]

Turn it in to the department that you filed the report with. They won't want it hanging around their property room very long. It'll get back to the owner.


I guess it all boils down to putting yourself in that person's shoes. If you had it stolen, would you want the person who had it to get impatient with the process and start parting it out since nobody returned it?

 

[*22899]

You don't want it, or the trouble that will come. Mixed and matched phones are never useful in the long run. There is always a bit of karma involved also.

 

[sKunk]

Like I said, who knows if the phone was even actually stolen. I have no idea why this phone has a bad ESN. Plus, lets be real here, we all know damn well the phone will never get back to its original owner if I did turn it in (which I tried). Maybe you guys have never had to deal with this type of stuff, but the police for sure dont care, and like was stated already, Verizon doesnt really either.


Im just trying to make the best out of a bad situation, and I fully understand whats "right" and whats "moral" but lets be real here, no ones perfect.

 

[hookbill]

Thread closed. It seemed the OP has intentions of wanting some decent advise but the last post is showing me that he's looking for a way to justify keeping the phone. If the ESN is bad it's either lost or stolen, and if it was on sail in Craig's List more then likely it was stolen.

Also OP, this is a family friendly forum. I had to edit two of your posts for using language that was not acceptable. Please do not use curse words in future postings.