Sirius Doesn’t Play Nice With Law Enforcement
Sirius Satellite Radio is a hot product and an easy target for potential thieves. It’s hard to walk down the street now a days without seeing a Satellite Radio unit just sitting in plain sight on the dash or stuck to a windshield. For thieves trying to make a quick buck this is like taking candy from a baby, they can be in and out in 5 seconds.
The problem for the victims is that when police officers like Thomas Shea from JustStolen.net recover the stolen units and contact Sirius for help, they run into a wall. Officer Shea says that he deals directly with a lot of big name manufactures in an effort to try and track down the rightful owners of stolen goods and Sirius is by far the hardest to deal with. When the Shea identifies himself as a Boston police officer and presents Sirius with the ID numbers on the radios, they refuse to be of any help to him.
The real kicker is that if the units are not found Sirius has no problem reactivating the stolen radios. It is time that Sirius changes its tune and puts a stop to essentially condoning the theft of their radios and make a public statement alerting all potential thieves that stolen radios will not be reactivated and their efforts will go unrewarded
It is not clear why Sirius takes this stance but, one could argue that this is some kind of internal business decision. If Sirius does nothing about the stolen units they can be reactivated and the original victim has to buy a new unit. This winds up producing two new sales for Sirius whereas, if they put a block on the stolen unit, they would only wind up with one new purchase of a receiver. By taking no stance on what is a serious issue they stand to put more money in their own pockets.
If you know someone in the Boston area that has had their Sirius radio stolen, there are currently 5 receivers in police custody. Let’s do what Sirius doesn’t want to do and reunite these victims with their property. Just head over to JustStolen.net and type the word “Sirius” into the search by category field to see the current list of recovered products.
Here’s an easy explanation why Sirius will activate a stolen radio: If someone buys a “hot” radio and doesn’t know it, then they’re the one that gets the loosing end of the deal if Sirius refuses to activate it. Also, it should be up to a victim of a theft to report a stolen radio, not the police. If Sirius started giving out customer info to people who aren’t on an account, then anyone could call up and say they’re a cop and get someone’s info. It’s called a privacy policy and I’d bet that most people would actually be happy to hear that a company sticks to what they say when it comes to those.
I agree that someone could buy a hot radio and be punished for that. All Sirius has to do is set up a ID# check on their website where you enter the unique radio ID# and click submit to see if the radio has been reported stolen before you buy.
Companies do not just give out information to anyone who ask for it. When an officer calls they must prove they are a actual law enforcement by presenting credentials and faxing information back and forth to the station to prove that the police are in fact the only ones getting a hold of that information (similar to how doctors work with the new privacy standards.)
There are no real privacy issue if protocol is followed. I hope this all makes sense.
I just had my Sirius dock and receiver stolen out of my car. Sirius supports thievery by allowing the thieves to sell the stolen goods and dumb bargain hunters to activate the stolen radio. Sirius refuses to flag the radio’s ID#. I guess they have to make money however they can even if it’s off stolen property. Pretty desperate I’d say.
FYI-they don’t flag them because it would cost them money not because of any privacy issues.
I just dealt with a stolen radio and was shocked to discover Sirius’s policy. It is nothing short of rewarding and encouraging theft. As soon as my subscription runs out, I’m done.