All your sidekick photos belong to me

I am a deal searcher, Craigslist, eBay, Amazon are some of my core deal shopping sites. After teasing my daughter about how poorly she takes care of her expensive electronic items; cell phone, digital camera, etc… I did the most heinous thing, I accidentally got her cell phone wet at the pool rendering it pretty much useless.

Coincidentally she and I were looking at cell phones a few days prior to the incident and she mentioned how much she would like a Sidekick3. Feeling rather foolish for having killed her phone*, I decided to find her a used Sidekick3. I found a really good deal on a used Sidekick3 on Craigslist, contacted the seller and arranged to meet locally.

The seller turned out to be a teenager, about 16 and plays HS football for a local HS. Nice kid, clean cut and not unpleasant… in other words he could be the kid next door type. After we meet and exchange niceties he shows me the phone and accessories promised in the ad. I give it a cursory once over and decide all looks okay, in fact the outside case is in very good condition, almost too nice, seems almost shameful to give this to my daughter who will most likely just mishandle it to an unrecognizable paper weight in a short time. Admittedly, I am not familiar with the Sidekick interface but can see enough to feel assured that it is in working condition. We exchange phone for money and seal the deal with a handshake. He then heads out, satisfied, now flush with $100 in hand.

Here is where it gets interesting. Now with new goodie in hand I decide to browse the menus and see what all the hype is for the Sidekick. The interface is easy to understand and I quickly get the hang of the different functions. I note he didn’t clear the address book of his friends info, he did not clear his text messages, and he left personal photos in memory on the Sidekick. VERY PERSONAL PHOTOS, as in nudies of his girlfriend and these are very… ummm… creative photos. Just so I can share the funny side of this incident with the wife I decide to leave the photos on just to show her but I delete them before giving the phone to my daughter *duh*. I figure out how to reset the phone back to factory with some help from Howardforums.com, only took a minute to figure it out and complete the phone wipe.

The point is pretty obvious; DO NOT SELL YOUR ELECTRONIC ITEMS WITHOUT FIRST FIGURING OUT HOW TO ERASE THE MEMORY. Kids can be so crazy.

Sidenote: My wife wanted to call the kid and tell him what we found. I think the phone number I had was for the old SIM chip that was in the Sidekick and she got was his voice-mail. She decided not to leave a message.

*I have an odd history of accidentally destroying other peoples phones. I once cut a friends phone in half with an industrial paper cutter… as a joke. I bought him a phone too.