Tourist in M’sia gets phone stolen, his phone returns to China before him
On 31 July, a tourist from Wenzhou, China lost his iPhone 15 Pro worth S$1,700 while visiting Penang, Malaysia.
However, upon returning to China a few days later, he was astonished to find that his phone had made it back to Wenzhou before he did.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, 21-year-old Zeng Yusong was on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia with his professor and two fellow students to visit local universities.
Thinking that the phone had been accidentally left in a hired car, the group returned to the place where they got off and found the driver.
However, the driver said it was not there and added that it could have been taken by another passenger who got in the car after them.
The group attempted to find the phone through its GPS, but it had been turned off.
Some of Mr Zeng’s ID cards were tucked between the phone and its case, adding to his worry.
Traced phone near their university in China
Upon their return to Singapore, they discovered that the phone was occasionally being turned on.
They assumed someone was trying to unlock it but switched it off quickly to avoid the location being locked.
On 4 Aug, the group flew back to China as planned, still without the phone.
Unexpectedly, while they were in Hong Kong, they tracked the phone to Wenzhou, where they were studying.
Specifically, the phone was located in a shopping mall about 80 kilometres from their campus.
Right after landing on 5 Aug, Mr Zeng went to the police, who accompanied him to a second-hand mobile phone store in the shopping mall.
Couple who visited Penang took phone
Mr Zeng requested to review the store’s surveillance footage and saw the clerk turning on his phone at around the same period he had tracked it.
The store clerk provided Mr Zeng with the contact information of a couple who had travelled to Penang around the same time as him and found his phone in the car.
The couple claimed they waited more than 10 minutes at the location where they found the phone before deciding to take the phone with them.
They had tried to sell the phone, but since it couldn’t be unlocked, the clerk refused and they left it at the shop for the clerk to keep trying.
However, Mr Zeng is sceptical about the couple’s story, suspecting they deliberately turned off the phone to avoid being reached.
He said that they could have given it to the car driver or local police in Penang instead of bringing it back to Wenzhou with them.
Also read: Man in Thailand has his entire vacation house stolen after only 20 days away
Man in Thailand has his entire vacation house stolen after only 20 days away
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao