If there s one thing more annoying than a bunch of software bots dogging your heels like a flock of aggressively panhandling Third World children, it s being spammed by the cops. That s apparently the primary weapon being used by Dutch police to crack down on the epidemic of handset theft. Roughly three quarters of muggings in Amsterdam involve handsets. Once your handset is reported stolen, cops send it a text message warning that the phone is stolen and shouldn t be bought or sold. Then they just keep on sending the same message every three minutes.
Officials admit they aren t all that concerned with warning anybody.
The point s just to annoy thieves. If the cops are smart, they ll make some money selling their lists of stolen numbers to telemarketers, who ll do the job for them for nothing. Hey, chump, this is Googly Minotaur. You better turn in this phone or else buy that Radiohead album. We ll get you one way or the other, scumbag.