It's not just the NSA...

December 16, 2016 10:10 PM

After film student Anthony Van Der Meer had his phone stolen, he decided to take a peek into the life of a phone thief (SLYT, 21’29”).
posted by pompomtom (10 comments total)

Listen to this little part of State of Surveillance' with Edward Snowden, recorded June 8th 2016.
posted by beesbees at 1:30 AM on December 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really reject his conclusion. Being shirtless, or smoking hashish is sketchy when it's an older Arab dude? I would be aggressive too if I saw some weedy white guy snoopin' around my apartment building.
posted by constantinescharity at 6:41 AM on December 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

I am critical of the decision to not blank out the non-English subtitles completely. Leaving them ghosted made the English subtitles hard to read, especially those on-screen for a short time.
posted by bz at 8:59 AM on December 17, 2016

He wonders why the iPhone wasn't reset by the thief. That's because, as I understand it, you need your iCloud password to wipe the phone.

Also, the person using the phone is probably not the thief but somebody who bought the phone off the thief during the 4 days the phone was off.

Don't know if this gets addressed in the vid. I'm only halfway through.
posted by I-baLL at 9:41 AM on December 17, 2016

I'm an idiot. Looks like it's not an iPhone but an HTC One Android phone.
posted by I-baLL at 9:43 AM on December 17, 2016

I was very surprised at how long it took the get the phone stolen.
posted by bendy at 10:09 AM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

I really reject his conclusion. Being shirtless, or smoking hashish is sketchy when it's an older Arab dude? I would be aggressive too if I saw some weedy white guy snoopin' around my apartment building.

Yeah, it seemed like he was about to make a statement about how immigrants get trapped in a cycle of poverty because they can't get jobs while they're waiting for visas/citizenship applications to clear . . . and then he went to "nvm, guy wasn't wearing a shit, guess he's eeevil after lol".
posted by Anonymous at 2:59 PM on December 17, 2016

OK, so the guy's either a thief or buying stolen goods, i.e. "no angel," but this still feels way too creepy and voyeuristic.
posted by AFABulous at 3:36 PM on December 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, the person using the phone is probably not the thief but somebody who bought the phone off the thief during the 4 days the phone was off.

I'm pretty sure they say they knew who the thief was when they go to report the theft at the police station and were looking for video footage of the theft.

I just assumed that the phone video confirmed it. It'd be fucked up if the phone was filming somebody else and he didn't tell us that important fact.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:29 AM on December 18, 2016

Also, the person using the phone is probably not the thief but somebody who bought the phone off the thief during the 4 days the phone was off.

The video creator addressed this in comments on the YouTube page. Although the theft wasn't recorded on camera they did witness that man stealing the phone and described him in the police report. There's a FAQ of other questions on the YT page as well.
posted by Qubit at 8:14 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]