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m2w committed Feb 15, 2014
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title: On getting robbed
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So I got robbed over the weekend. Phone and wallet are both gone. In this day and age that is a pretty huge hindrance. Firstly, the phone is my only means of offline/mobile communication and thanks to Google Authenticator it is a very important part of my digital life as a whole. Secondly, no one lives off cash alone now-a-days and suddenly finding yourself in a situation where you're pretty much blank is rather upsetting.

I have to admit that the debacle could have been much worse, I only suffered financial damage, my phone is fully encrypted and I managed to lock all my cards before anything fishy happened. It is still a huge hassle[[^1]] and makes you feel pretty vulnerable.

So I thought I should share some general advice on how to prepare yourself for a similar situation:

- Always have some cash at home (I would recommend about $50-100) that will allow you to buy groceries for a couple of days and pay for any unexpected costs, such as public transportation or "re-issue" fees
- Makes sure you have photocopies of your most important documents locked away somewhere that you can easily access them
- Have an old wallet in a closet
- Encrypt everything! Especially your phone! This is a double edged sword, one the one hand it means your data is safe, on the other it means your chances of ever locating your phone are zero (since the thief will never be able to actually boot it back up)
- Keep a record of things you wouldn't think are important, but actually are. Examples are the card numbers of your bank and credit cards and your passport numbers - in Germany these are required for the police report.
- Make sure you have an easily accessible secondary communication tool available. This could be a Skype account with credit (remember that your credit card is locked at this point), an old phone or a patient room mate.
- Keep an offline vulnerability list. E.g. Phone lost/stolen -> lock / wipe device, phone UID for the police report, backup plan for 2FA access to any affected services, secondary SIM or phone to stay "available"
- An idea of whether your insurance covers any of the damage and how long your claim window is

At this point I would really like to thank my brother for being generally awesome and being a huge help throughout this mess. Generally though, the most important thing is to stay calm. All of the people that I have had to interact with were incredibly understanding and real helpful. In the end it is just money.

[^1]: Basically you will have to lock all your banking related cards and wait for new cards and PINs, lock your SIM and order a new one, lock any other cards you might have (e.g. gym membership, public transit, etc.), fill out a police report and get your driver's license and ID reissued.

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