Stylish Laptop Bags

How do I go about triangulating the location of my cell phone? (POTENTIAL $260 USD REWARD IF FOUND)?

If you don't want to hear the story skip to the stars. But I must say I find it slightly entertaining. At 9:56 AM on 12-20-09 (Saturday) in Cancun, Mexico, my father picked up my laptop bag in the Westin Laguna Mar hotel lobby to load it into the taxi outside. There were two other vans and one other taxi in front of the hotel. We had just checked out. Before the taxi arrived, I had ran up to the room to grab something, and when I returned, my parents were waiting for me in the Taxi. We then road in the taxi cab to the Gran Melia hotel down the street. When we arrived at the hotel, we unloaded our luggage, and my laptop bag was missing. Before the taxi could leave, I ran up and tapped on the window. I got in after making sure the bag was not in the taxi or its trunk. Me and the driver drove back to the Westin. I then checked the outside port. The bag was not there. The bag was nowhere in the lobby. The bag was not in the room, the elevators, or the luggage storage area. I then asked to see the security tapes. The tapes showed my father carry the bag outside, but there were no tapes showing the taxi port where the bag would have been stolen or left. So we know the bag made it out of the lobby. The tapes also showed my father picking up the bag at 9:56, and me returning to the lobby at 10:16. So we know the bag was taken in that exact time frame. We then got the list of the taxis that were there when we were. We checked with the driver of the first taxi. He and the woman he was driving confirmed they did not pick up the bag. So it must have been one of the vans. We called on van, and the driver said he had not seen the bag. The other van was never contacted. We also know that it was left at the front of the Westin. The first taxi driver confirmed this. So we know it was not misplaced when we arrived at the Melia. That was as far as we could go with the vans. The security at the Westin is in the process of contacting all of the guests that left when we did via e-mail. So it is possible that one of the tourists in the vans had taken the bag my accident, as the bell hop boys load the vans for the guests and any luggage nearby. If this is the case, it is most likely that the luggage is at the airport security terminal, as that is where we know the taxi and first van were heading. The whereabouts of the last van are unknown. It is also possible that they checked the bag somehow. In which case they will soon find out that it is not theirs and turn it in to another airport security station. Aside from this, we also filed a police report at the local police station. But that will probably run cold. The most reliable hope I have at this point is cell phone triangulation, and in case you are wondering, here's why I'm willing to pay about $1000 dollars to anyone who actually sends me the bag. It contained: 1 HP Pavillion Laptop with Windows Vista 1 iPod Nano (4GB) with a pink rubber case 1 pair of Skull Candy headphones 1 Ethernet Cable 1 Charger Set for the laptop 1 External Hard Drive (160GB) with USB cable 1 USB Drive (2GB) 1 EnV3 Motorolla Cellphone with Verizon Wireless 1 Wallet with $25 cash, my driver's license, a $25 Keeva Kash card, two other empty cash cards, my student ID, and my debit card (It's a really nice wallet, too) 1 Pair of Oakley Sunglasses 1 YoYo/Top 1 Paper Notebook 1 Green folder with thank you cards 1 Book by TZ Lavine (Socrates to Sartre) 1 Book by Harry G. Frankfurt (On Bullshit) 1 Book on Cognitive science 1 5lb Grip Strength Trainer 1 Pentago Board Game 1 YoYo 1 Hackie Sack And probably other things I'm forgetting. Far more than the things themselves, I am a writer and thinker, and some of my most cherished ideas and thoughts and songs and poems are stored in files on both the hard drive and laptop. Those are worth far more to me than anything else. My phone contacts, too. It's a pain in the ass to have to get those back, as I am 17, and many of my friends are now aloof in colleges across the nation. So I'm willing to pay far more than $260 USD for my stuff, but that is all I have in my bank account right now, so that is all I can promise. So far, I can't blame anyone. My dad and mom were just in a hurry, and didn't think about it. And the drivers or luggage loaders at the hotel probably just got confused in all of the chaos. And maybe some tourists checked it in at the airport security even though we contacted them and let them know everything. And yes, it is possible the hotel security is lieing or the cab drivers are lieing or the van driver or tourists are just nasty thieves. It looks... not really bleak, but not too bright either. There's room to be an optimist still. *** So now, at this point, my best bet is probably to figure some way to triangulate the location of my phone in my bag to find where it is at. I have Verizon, and they say I can't do it. Also the police here say it is very complicated with all of the legalities involved in me being a t ourist. We'll see. UPDATE The phone seems to be on and working. I can call and get the full ring back tone until the voice message. Also, there have been no calls made from the phone or messages or data sent since after it was lost along with the other items. There have been no charges to the card either. Both show up to date information from Mexico. So it seems like they're just sitting somewhere. I sent several messages to the phone with reward information and contact info. So maybe. And my card is safe, I transferred my money. I also backed up most of the information on the computer previously. But all new information seems lost. I also told everyone who would have had it about the reward.

Public Comments

1. 1 Turn on the cell phone. A live cell phone is in continual relay with surrounding cell phone towers to ensure the strongest signal, meaning the phone must be on to send a signal. Step 2 Note the location of the signal tower receiving the strongest signal. Draw its coverage radius. You now have one point with a circle and know that the phone is located somewhere within that ring. Step 3 Add a second tower's radius and location receiving a signal from your cell phone. The overlapping between these two spheres narrows the choices your phone is located to two points. Step 4 Place the signal strength of a third tower receiving a signal from your cell phone with the other two. At the point where these three orbits intersect you have the location of the cell phone.
2. You'd have to do it through cell phone service, and there would indeed be complications / legalities involved, especially when dealing with Mexico on top of everything. And though it might be a big deal to you, there's not enough to justify the major expense & hassle for those who'd have to try and track what's essentially a lost phone to them. If some accident occurred, you'd probably have better odds just trying to call the phone (assuming it's on) and hoping someone answers. If the phone isn't on, I'm pretty sure you're not triangulating with it anyway. If it was "intentionally" stolen, someone's going to be likely destroying things like your SIM card, too, so there's no point trying to track it. Call it and someone answers and helps or it's gone. Anyway, I'd report things as lost / stolen where you can. That would include your cell service, so at least you don't have to cover phone use and can get things transferred to a new phone. Also places like the DMV for your driver's license, or your school for student ID.... bank for the debit card right away. Anyway, I'm sorry you had stuff lost or stolen. Hopefully you can at least learn something out of it in terms of protecting irreplaceable things, and not letting anything like that out of your sight when traveling, particularly to places like Mexico. Whenever you travel, you are a big target for things like theft -- you don't know the language, the customs, etc., and you're somewhat disoriented, going to be leaving the area, etc. Anything critical on a computer should always be backed up regularly and not centrally stored -- an external drive in the same bag does only so much. And even though you might trust people like friends and family to handle your things at times, no one else is going to value things and watch them in the same way you would -- they just don't see it the same way. Anyway, your stuff is likely gone. Try calling the phone, and start reporting things where necessary so you minimize your damage. It can still get worse if the phone starts getting used, your ID misused, your debit card used, etc. If you want offering a reward to maybe help, you should be doing it in the exact location things were lost.