If there has ever been a time in history where you need to establish and exercise your integrity and high character on a daily basis, it is now. We have all seen the news stories where hidden, or even not so hidden, cameras capture all the details of a wrong being committed. I often find myself watching the scene unfold and asking of the people involved, “Are you stupid, what were you thinking??”
Beware of Mobile-Me
I recently had the opportunity to witness “Stupid Hurts” up close and personal. And I am excited to tell you that for once it did not directly involve me. Lord knows I have participated in plenty of these caused by me, but not this time.
A friend of mine was visiting a restaurant with her husband and she set her iPhone down while in the restroom. The next morning, she went looking for her phone in all the normal places and finally realized she must have left it at the restaurant. She phoned the restaurant, no phone turned in. She searched her car, no phone to be found. As her husband and I were talking about why can’t people be trusted to find something and turn it in he mentioned to me that they had the Apple Mobile-Me program active on both of their iPhones. I had heard of this tool, but had never seen it. So, he told me how to log in to their account and I did so on my laptop. Once into their account I was able to see both his phone and hers. His phoned showed to be at the address where we were standing. Her phone however, was in the next town over from where we were standing, approximately 20 miles away.
Where Are You?
As it turns out the Mobile-Me program gives you a couple of choices; you can lock your phone (which my friend already had a password protected lock on the phone (this is very good)). You can wipe your phone of all the data so no one can use it. And, you can send a message to the phone with an audible alarm to alert the person who has it. So we took option #3 and sent a message asking the person to call us and let us know where we could pick up the phone. We waited, but there was no response. So we sent another message with audible alarm alerting the person who had the phone that this was the last message we were sending the next call would be to the police.
The Police Arrive
I probably would not have called the police over a cell phone, even an iPhone, but my friends were smarter than me on this point and knew that if you report it stolen you avoid responsibility if the thief were to do something criminal with the stolen technology. When the officer arrived we were able to show him on my computer screen the area where the phone was being held hostage. He was pretty amazed by this technology and immediately called another officer who was close to the location. The second officer went into the establishment, called the cell number of my friends phone and arrested the girl who had the ringing phone. The next day my friends phone was returned and the offender went to jail.
Character Matters
The thought of some 20-something girl going to jail over an iPhone that she could not even unlock to use really began to bother me. How could one seemingly small and insignificant act of picking up a phone that does not belong to you end up with such a devastating result? But then, character matters. My own experience with this type of thing is that many of us make corner-cutting actions with our character and there is no immediate consequence, at least none we can see. There is no police officer standing behind us waiting for the phone to ring. We see no immediate result and we think there is no consequence. There is always a consequence.
The Learning’s
On the technology front, the big ah-ha is to password protect your phone and iPad type devices so they cannot be used if they are lost or stolen. If you can invoke something like Mobile-Me for the Apple devices, you should do that. As for the bigger learning’s of character, this what you should be teaching in your home and in your heart:
1. Small things matter – I was once buy pine straw to put in flower beds and the clerk took my money for 10 bales and told me I had to go around back to load it myself. While loading the bales I commented to my then 7-year old son that we could take as many as we wanted because no one was watching. He looked up at me and said, “God is watching!” A father’s greatest pleasure, seeing a child grasp a huge truth that many people won’t get in a life time. Many people justify cutting the corners by saying that it is only pine straw, or it is only an iPhone. It does not matter what it is, it’s not yours then don’t touch it.
2. Teach 100% Ethics – Once, when I was in Singapore my colleagues and I were getting lunch at a large food court type of area. I carried my tray to a table and saw a cell phone sitting on the table. As I began to take my seat I mentioned that someone was going to be really upset that they had left their phone behind. My colleagues told me to stand up and find another table because the phone there meant someone had claimed the table but had gone to get their food. I almost dropped my tray. When you are teaching your children or teaching yourself NEVER cut corners with your integrity. Do what is right 100% of the time, even it hurts you or cost you something.
3. Demonstrate 100% ethics – small eyes are watching you…actually, all eyes are watching you. It is really easy to talk good ethics and integrity and then do the exact opposite when the pressure is on. I heard a parent complaining that they could not get their children to do what they told them to do. All the children would do was what they saw the parents doing. People do what people see.
So this woman with the iPhone is going to jail. I am hopeful that this is the wake-up call that she needs and that she will fail forward growing from this setback in her life. Of course it may be a pattern of her life and this time she just got caught. My advice is to never open the door to this type of situation. Walk in character and integrity and you will always be where you need to be.
