Facebook/PAOne unfortunate couple in the U.S. are being bombarded with visits from angry people looking for their lost phones.
However, Christina Lee and Michael Saba who live in suburban Atlanta, haven’t been nicking people’s mobiles or anything sinister – the whole thing is the result of smartphone tracking apps directing people to their house.
Wonderful Engineering reports that the whole strange saga began last February when one angry family knocked on their door and demanded the return of their stolen phone.
The same thing happened again two months later when a group of friends came looking for their lost phone, and soon there were more than a dozen visits in 2015, and two already in the first month of the new year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCUBxmspUs
Besides being taken aback and completely confused by the situation, given that they had no clue how the iPhones and Androids were showing as being located on their property, things soon took a turn for the worse.
The strange issue brought police to Lee and Saba’s door last June after the tracking signal from a missing girl’s phone led them to the couple’s house. Despite the two explaining the issue, the police treated them as suspects in the case and even searched their house.
Unsurprisingly then, the couple are pretty concerned about the whole thing and that it could lead to someone dangerous coming to their door who isn’t quite so understanding about the situation.
The couple are now planning to file a complaint to the FCC and their senator, and they’re hoping media coverage and public pressure will help them in their case.
GoogleAccording to WE, Saba said:
Public pressure is how stuff like this changes. It sucks that it happens to us, but I hope our experience will lead it to not happening to anyone else.
The whole thing is very strange, indeed, and nobody yet has any real idea what is causing the problem. The best guess comes from Ken Westin, a security analyst, who reportedly said it could be happening because of an error in the ‘cell tower triangulation’ in one of the three towers situated close to the couple’s home.
That’s of little comfort to this unfortunate couple though, who have tried everything to try and fix the issue – from resetting their router to changing its broadcast frequency – to no avail.
Let’s hope this problem gets sorted for them, sooner rather than later.
