Watch what a filmmaker learnt by spying for weeks on the man who stole his phone
'Find my Phone' is a thrilling but disturbing journey into the personal life of a thief.
Would anyone steal a phone if they knew everything they did after that would be tracked? The person who stole Anthony van der Meer’s Android phone might not have tried his hand at crime if he had known what would ensue.
After van der Meer had his stolen in Netherlands – losing half his life to theft, as any smartphone-user will know – he got curious about cellphone thieves, and about what actually happens to a phone after it is stolen. So, he programmed a phone with spyware and let it get purloined.
The result? The film above. Van der Meer captured every step of the thief’s – his location, messages, and conversations he had with various people. This in turn led to a burst of guilt and even a wave of sympathy.
Find my Phone – a 20-minute short film that van der Meet made as his graduation project for the Willem Academy in Rotterdam – engages the viewer through continuous navigation of the thief’s activities with the phone. It is a very strange journey indeed.