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January 16, 2013

Faulty GPS Tracking System Leads Lost Cell Phone Users to Wrong Location

By Carlos Olivera, TMCnet Content Producer

If you are a Las Vegas resident and lose your smartphone, don’t waste your time showing up on Wayne Dobson’s doorstep because chances are he doesn’t have it.

Dobson has lived in his North Las Vegas home with his wife for two years, and in that time he’s had seven people come knocking on his door because of a faulty GPS tracking system, five of those people had been missing their Sprint (News - Alert) cell phones.



"I understand why people are upset. These are $300 or $500 devices," Dobson said. "I'm worrying about someone showing up in an agitated state, are drinking, and if that one person has a weapon perhaps. This is Las Vegas."

Dobson, 58, has been forced to put up a sign outside of his single family home because the cell phone tower behind his house continually gives a bad GPS reading, the sign reads; “No lost cell phones!! This location gives a false 'phone locator' position due to a cell tower behind this home. Please contact the North Las Vegas Police and file a report."

Dobson has had a group of men come banging on his door at 2:30 in the morning and fears what may happen if they show up to his home looking for their phones. Dobson said he doesn’t exactly feel safe and now is forced to sleep in his chair by his front door.

"I never know when this is going to happen. I can't sleep comfortably any more. I think, what's going to happen next? It's a very disturbing problem," Dobson said.

It’s not only people with lost cell phones that come knocking on Dobsons door either. On two separate occasions, a police dispatcher was unable to trace a 911 call and mistakenly dispatched officers to Dobsons home, who was ordered to exit his home and consent to a weapons search.

Dobson is so sick of the problem he has reached out to anyone he can including the chief of police, his city councilman and even Sprint, who said they were looking into the matter.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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