Tucson News NowCell phone repair shop business booming

Cell phone repair shop business booming

Dozens of cell phones are reported stolen everyday, and many of them end up for sale on the web, or in local stores.

A quick check of Tucson's Craigslist website shows a long list of used cell phones for sale.  Police say many of them are stolen.

Francisco Molino lost his iPhone recently, and said it was like losing his identity.

"I got all my accounts open on it, different accounts like Facebook, messenger, even email," said Molino.

Local cell phone dealers are seeing people walk in here everyday, trying to make a quick sell.

"We go ahead and check the serial numbers and make sure everything is valid and can be re-used again.  We want to make sure it's not stolen or lost," said Jose Ramirez, a Tucson cell phone repairman.

Roberton Nissenbaum, the owner of Blue Ridge Wireless said the business was booming.

"It's huge at this point. When we first started there were only a handful of them, now we see them like Walgreens, spread out on every street corner," said Nissenbaum.

There was money to be made.  A used phone could be sold for $15 to $100 dollars, based on the make, model, and condition.

Phones that were not flagged as stolen, and up in what you could call a cell phone "chop shop".  A place where they would be taken apart.  The parts would then be used to fix other phones, for cheap.

Ramirez told us what parts he could make use of, out of a typical cell phone.

"Screens, LCD's digitizers, microphones, speakers, anything that can be re-used on the inside," said Ramirez.

While it is a cheap fix, Roberto Nissenbaum warned, there was a downside to using "used" parts.

"You don't know where that phone came from.  Ff that phone got wet, a lot of places will buy them for parts, but the touch screens, LCD's are all electrical. It's been damaged by the moisture," said Nissenbaum.

Phones that were flagged as stolen still had a strong online market. They may not end up in a chop shop, or store display case,  they could end up for sale on the world wide web.

If you do lose your cell phone, change your email and Facebook passwords immediately.

File a police report, and contact your carrier to report it as stolen or lost.  They will suspend your service immediately.

If you have GPS service added to your device, you should be able to track to within a 100 feet of your phone.

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