HELP! Christmas Shopping fell off back of my motorbike! UPDATE!

[Willard]

H & M bag containing 2 gift wrapped boxes fell off my motorbike today at about 3.30pm on Grove Hill Rd, near the top of Dog Kennel Hill.

I realised the bag was missing on arrival in East Dulwich. I raced back along my route home and found the bag tied to the lamp post on the zebra crossing outside the Dog Kennel primary school. Some good samaritan had tried to help but by the time I found it all the presents (?150 worth) had been taken.

On the off chance that anyone has seen them please message me. I will offer a reward for their safe return.

Thanks

[Bluerevolution]

Good luck with that

[Willard]

Yes I know. Praying for a Christmas miracle.

[Willard]

Clever Forum people, I need your help!

As you may already know my bag fell off my motorbike. A good Samaritan picked it up and tied it to a lamp post. They took the contents home and left this note in the bag which I have only just seen (because I'm an idiot). Problem is, they have left a digit out of their number! What's the most likely error do you think?

[hazelnunhead]

I think there should be another 7, so 077 then the number. (Or look at the start 3 digits of numbers and see if that is the number missing)

My gut feeling would be that it is a repeat number that has been left out!

Could you leave a message on the lamppost, saying that the number is incnplete and leave your number, perhaps the person travels to work that route daily.

Good luck with this, fingers crossed for you!

[Willard]

Thanks for that. I left a message on the lamp post on Friday. The problem is the person may have been in the car behind me and may not live that close...

I sent a text to the 077... option earlier after it rang out. Fingers crossed.

I have also tried adding 0-9 after the double 8 and left messages there too

[Robert Poste's Child]

Could be a digit missing after '0788', maybe a 7?

[intexasatthe moment]

Can't all forumites get busy texting different combinations and see how we get on ???

Keeping everything crossed for you Willard .

[Earl Aelfheah]

A lot of mobiles start 07881

[smith 41]

Also 07818

[curlylocks]

smith 41 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Also 07818

Seconded - I've had numbers starting with 0781 & 0780, might even be other numbers after the first 8....

[Mark]

Spidey senses say it'll be 0788x 314 843, maybe a 3.

Try rubbing a pencil lightly on the paper to see if anything else was written on it to give you a clue to the owner. Good luck.

[Angelina]

I found this on wikipedia

Looks like number start with 077 or 078 or 07x8

so if it's an 077 number you have your 11th digit.

If it's an 078 or 07x8 number you have a fixed number of tries. You could also try calling one of the providers.

They might help....

Mobile telephones

07xxx xxxxxx?mobile phones and WiFi numbers.

Individual mobile phone companies are allocated different ranges within the 073xx, 074xx, 075xx, 07624, 077xx, 078xx and 079xx area codes. Changes to mobile phone numbers in the Big Number Change were mostly straight replacements, such as Vodafone customers on the 0378 block became 07778.

073xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (in use since November 2014)

074xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (in use since November 2009)

075xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (in use since May 2007)

07624 xxxxxx Mobile phones on the Isle of Man

077xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (former 03xx and 04xx?mostly Vodafone and O2 (formerly Cellnet))

078xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (former 05xx, 06xx and 08xx?mostly Vodafone and O2 (formerly Cellnet))

079xx xxxxxx Mobile phones (former 09xx?mostly Orange and T-Mobile (formerly one2one))

07911 2xxxxx

07911 8xxxxx WiFi numbers (used by companies such as Tovo and Mobiboo)

[worldwiser]

This reminds me of the time a motorist crashed into my parked car and left me a note which read, 'I'm writing you this note so people think I'm leaving you my number. Which as you can see I'm not.'

[ianr]

You can see the full allocations at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/numbering/.

My first bet, assuming that many people remember their numbers in the allocated 5+6 form, would be that the initial 0788 is correct, and that it might be the last digit of the initial five, or the first of the final six. That gives you twenty to try.

ie 0788? 314843

or 07883 ?14843

[lilolil]

Have you tried 07877 ? Think that's a 3 network number

[Laddy Muck]

I know little about mobiles so, regrettably, can't help you Willard. However, I just want to say how moved I am feeling over people wanting to help you. This, for me, is what life (and this forum) should be (and often are) about.

I wish you luck Willard. Please could you keep us posted?

[sweetgirl]

how about going back to where the bag was left & leaving a note for them?

might work if you've had no joy so far.......

[Craig&Sha]

Could it be an 07989 even? The second "8" looks like it could be a 9...

[Angelina]

they've also left a letter of out the woord describe, so an accidental ommission could be likely, as opposed to intentional (and why go to the trouble if they were just intending to leave a wrong number?).

[ianr]

I was going also to second hazelnunhead's suggestion of trying a missed out repeat digit.

But how about simple brute force, trying every missing digit in each acceptable position, using a bulk messaging sevice or software? No more than 90 candidates. I've generated a list of them that I can send you in any format if you pm me.

[Angelina]

ianr - that is so cool....

[rch]

A quicker method might be to phone the 101 non-emergency police number and report it as a missing package, as it has an identifiable value.

In fact, it's possible that the person who found the package might have actually reported it to 101 so that it could be logged in case the owner also logged it... at worst, the police may be able to help to triangulate the phone number configuration with a view to recovering the "lost" item.

It's sad that because we don't have police stations down here in the Dulwich area anymore, that we have to use the East Dulwich Forum as a Cyber Neighbourhood Watch conduit...

[Willard]

Wow! Just logged on this morning to find all these posts. I really appreciate everyone chipping in with ideas and suggestions, thank you everyone.

I'm also (cautiously) happy to report that there has been an overnight development in that someone texted at 2am (my phone was off) saying they have it and to call back at 2pm today. I'm assuming they might work nights or something like that.

Assuming the rest of the phone number was right, and all mobiles begin 07, I dialled a potential missing 3rd to 10th digit, doing a 0-9 in each case. It was actually only 80 calls, 90% of which were number unrecognised. The ones which rang or went to voicemail I then texted. Fingers crossed people but it looks like we may have a result here. I will of course keep you all posted. x

[Help-Ma-Boab]

I'll be tuning in after 2pm Willard to hopefully find you have been reunited. That would be a great Festive ending to the tale. Fingers crossed...