So Since You Asked...

(Otherwise entitled The iPhone Saga)

So, if you haven't heard, the amazing Aunt Deb dangled a pretty big carrot in front of Christianne last fall and and rewarded Chris with an iPhone at Christmastime for meeting certain academic goals.  The carrots I had been dangling were apparently not worth working for, but she certainly liked the variety Aunt Deb offered. 

All has been going well with that and Christianne has been enjoying unlimited texting and e-mail and the countless other iPhone features so much (and maintaining a pretty good academic record)... until about 6 weeks ago.

To make a very, very, long story shorter (I hope), Christianne came home from school one Wednesday afternoon pretty devastated that her phone was gone.  Being that she hadn't had it out of her eyesight for nearly 4 months, I was actually kind of surprised.  She thought that it had fallen out of her pocket at school.   (Now with the information we have, she believes differently.)

We looked everywhere for the phone.  Every time we called it, it went straight to voice mail.  We assumed that it hadn't been turned back on then and was just lost, perhaps kicked under some furniture or something.  We went to the school and looked, every day, for weeks.  We put up posters, offering first a $50 reward and then a $100 reward.  We placed ads both on Craigslist and in the local newspaper.  We prayed - a lot!  Although Deb got a pretty good deal on the phone originally, to replace it we would have to pay nearly 5 times as much ~ and given that she was under contract with AT&T... the thought was pretty depressing.

Well, God does answer prayer, and always in His timing.  A couple of Fridays ago (3?), just as school was getting out, we got a call from the dean that she had Christi's phone and would actually be giving it to the police on Monday because there was a criminal matter involved.

Lots of phone calls and messages ensued.  A police report was made, people were interviewed, yada yada yada.  We were told not to expect the phone back for up to 3 months because it was being held as evidence.  I couldn't imagine what could be so big that it required the actual phone to be kept for so long... actually, I could imagine some things and I think that bothered me even more... but we never really got any definitive answers from anyone as to what was going on.

Eventually I was connected with the boy who turned in the boy who had the phone and got him his reward money.  He was a great kid, very honest, and never even asked for the money.  His grandfather was there with him and sure looked proud.

After he left, I spoke with the dean.  I wanted to know what the deal was or else were going to drop our complaint (since we didn't even know what the actual complaint was!) and get the phone back.  She hemmed and hawed and gave me the same runaround the PO gave me - "it's a serious matter."  I told her I didn't need details; I just needed general information to determine the severity of the matter - regardless of the offense, we are talking about a 13yo boy here ~ and some offenses may merit serious criminal pursuit, but others don't.

Finally she coughed up that the boy had been using Christi's cell and one other stolen phone (it was now stolen and sold to someone for $50 and the details get fuzzy here) to deal drugs all over northern Colorado and as far away as Denver.

So yeah - drug dealing by a 13yo in my daughter's middle school.

Last Friday we actually did get the phone back.  The DA kept the SIM card and returned the phone.  The phone was actually in pretty great condition although the case was missing.  Went to the AT&T store and they replaced the SIM card for us for free. 

And now we continue to wait... for a police report, more information, the kid's name, etc.

So there you go - The iPhone Saga.