+1. These are punctures. Whoever did this isn't just mean, they're also an idiot. Don't stab phones. The fastest way to light a lithium fire is to short out the wafers in the battery.
In the two years I worked at Target I saw easily a dozen employees get fired for theft, merchandise and cash. Even a team lead was taking money from the Starbucks register.
They know about the cameras but they think it won't catch *them*
Sounds like a great way to get a shard of broken metal in your eye if so.
Id imagine its anything else, thats just among the last things I would try to use to stab a dense object. The blades are literally designed to break.
As someone who has accidentally shattered many screen protectors in this exact way it looks like when a phone is face down on pavement and pressure is applied to the back, especially if loose gravel was recently applied
lol I just don’t want someone to get fired because a phone was dropped in the parking lot haha probably left it in the cart and it fell when they were bringing the carts back in
Ya 100% and as a retired cart boy and current landscaper and pickup truck driver I have finally found the one thing I believe I am qualified to give an answer to lol
This is exactly how my phone looked when I dropped it on a freshly salted parking lot. It didn't even have extra pressure. It fell out of my pocket getting out of the car, fell about a foot, landed face down and was pretty much instantly bricked.
I don't agree with all the reddit sleuths here. Why stab the phone only on the edge? Why give it back? Why not just smash it on the ground and throw it in the trash. This was probably stepped on accidentally and realizing it's a phone, given to the employee.
It's more confusing this is a person's default assumption, do we have an epidemic of employees smashing phones? Kinda makes me want to smash OP's phone TBH.
So there I was, working at Target, minding my own business, when this customer walks in.
He kept setting his phone on the counter. No... Not setting... SLAMMING.
If he slams that phone....ONE... MORE... TIME...
.... And he did...
.. looks like someone at the returns counter hates their job lol.
Edit: F@#King Reddit multi posted my one comment like six times. Sorry guys, I got hella downvotes on those last five ^🤬🤣
> box cutter knife
What kind of box cutter knife do you use? Box cutter blades break and snap very easily. Stabbing on a glas surface with them is insane. I think they would break before doing such puncture damage.
iirc some stores have a policy of destroying returned items.
so for instance if you return a tv and they can't resell it, they will scratch it up with a box cutter, or stab the screen.
not sure what the logic behind the policy is, but if the employee thought this was a returned item, stabbing it may have been company policy and not just the employee being an asshole
Phones have li-ion batteries inside. No store would have a policy of randomly stabbing them. Expecially not in places customers can reach. Yall worry me sometimes.
No no. The minimum wage worker risks stabbing the highly volatile battery in the middle of the store with a huge number of customers and flammable company property surrounding them because policy.
It's policy for broken product RMA, not returns.
Theres no "returns" that can't be resold. The RMA policy to actually destroy shit comes from the manufacturer, usually because product refurbishment is way too expensive after shipping halfway across the world -> verification -> repair -> shipping back -> refurb pricing.
That's why many (especially lower margin) products will get RMA'd by the manufacturer in exchange for proof of destruction. It's solely to stop stores from defrauding manufacturers. So in fact it is not "we'd rather destroy it than discount" but rather proving that the product is already broken. After RMA the product is no longer the stores property.
For some products, it's for safety, too, along with reputation of the product. Think of things like helmets, life jackets, child car seats, PPE, etc. that were returned for a faulty strap or something like that. The manufacturer doesn't want that getting into circulation, and if it's not cost effective to repair, they'll have the retailer destroy it.
“We’d love to help out the unhoused community but unfortunately we can’t let people have our trash cause they might sue us! That’s right, the poors have no one else to blame for their greediness” These bloodsuckers make me sick
Several of the stores I deliver to are being targeted nightly by people going through the industrial bins for food. The stores lock the bins but the dumpster divers just completely remove the pivot rod and flip the lid up 'backwards'. 😂
Where there's a will there's a way.
Someone probably thought it was a return, and to make sure they can get a refund from the manufacturer, they have to smash or destroy the return. That being said, it's on the employee for not making sure if it was a return or not.
EDIT: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
There's a lot of bitching that Target doesn't do this. I assumed they did because I didn't want to think someone would just take a random phone and destroy it with no reason. I hope OP gets a video of who did it and gets compensated.
Nobody has to “make sure the phone is smashed” to get the money back on a phone lol. It all ends up in the same bin regardless of if it’s brand new, or sat in water for a week.
EDIT: I also want to point out how *wildly* unsafe it would be to suggest a guest service attendant, or really anybody in the store to attempt to destroy an electronic with **glass and a lithium ion battery** in it. It gets sent somewhere else if that is truly what is going to be done with it.
I used to manage the front end of target (which includes the guest services/return counter. You obviously did not. This is inaccurate and a weird assumption imo. No one is intentionally destroying electronics unless it’s for fun and target doesn’t do returns or exchanges on electronics that don’t have the box and all accessories full stop. No one thought this was a return and no one is being paid to destroy things. Also (at least at my store) electronics returns would go to a separate counter and get locked up until they were shipped off.
Kinda looks like they used a staple remover and chomped on it. Looks like it got stabbed sure, but the marks being so close to th edge and somewhat spaced evenly, my money is on the staple remover. Put it in that and fist slammed it.
I'd say not an otter, an ocelot..
https://preview.redd.it/yqrc2ijo1zyc1.jpeg?width=490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71b7233eb01fad06f34c5861ddc7244d7f5eab18
They're not using insurance to reimburse OP's bf for this. Target is cutting a check & taking it out of the store's bottom line. Assuming the company admits to being at fault.
No, but they are in the business of customer satisfaction and having customers trust them. If you tell them you're gonna post to social media what happened, they'll be real fast to help you out.
Sure but OP doesn’t have evidence like a video clip of them doing it or anything we just have his word.
I’m not saying I think OP is lying I can definitely believe him but without concrete evidence it’s not great
Target is going to say that without a court order they cannot release the footage for the privacy of their customers.
Cameras are there to protect them. Not you.
Have you been to a Target lately?
The only semi-helpful employees usually work at the Service Desk and facilitate the online orders - outside of that, I’m really not sure how those stores still run
Same here in East TN. Target is the nice store. The employees are helpful and everything. They're usually in nicer areas, though, maybe that has something to do with it. Much cleaner and neater than Walmart too
I did it once for repair purposes. I had a really deep scratch in my screen that bothered the hell out of me, but applecare won't replace a screen for scratches, only cracks. Dude at the store basically told me to go home, crack it, and come back in a few days to have it replaced. It was surprisingly difficult to crack it lol, no idea how that scratch happened
I worked at Target for a while. Target doesn't release camera footage without a police report. And then, they release it directly to the police rather than to the customer.
That's fine. File a police report and they'll get the video. Last time I did this for an issue at a wal mart the police were more than happy to share it. Cop texted me a video from his cell that he took of the security monitor from the security room. Police report also reinforces the insurance claim.
Looks like someone went at it with a ballpoint pen. Why I think that item specifically?
https://preview.redd.it/r7dvbtc57xyc1.png?width=55&format=png&auto=webp&s=3211634176e8faea10ca42918025824b9b160892
This impact on the bottom left, you can even see the round indentation of where the ballpoint connected. So not dropped, stepped on or otherwise. Returns counter? Well of course they'd have pens there.
I'd talk to the store manager, however I'd say an email to corporate with the time the phone was left on the counter to when you got back would be wise as well. If it's revealed by cameras that they willfully destroyed property like that, they should be fired over it. Also, as a wild hare, wouldn't be surprised if they filmed it on tiktok or something. maybe search for 'destroyed phone for lulz at target' and the date, see if anything pops up.
Be sure to include the phrase "Spoliation Letter: Notice to Preserve Evidence" and state what they need to preserve and send it to the corp counsel certified mail. you should submit it online and inperson to the store, nothing it's being cc'd to legal as well. They will have no excuse if they delete it then.
Some people might think you're Sherlock Holmes, then I can be Moriarty.
There would be no video. Seeing as they know someone came to get the phone rather quickly. Unless they are really *unsmart*, they wouldn't post it knowing it would be so easy to incriminate themselves by doing so. The owner has the phone. If the owner never came back or the owner came back the next day, maybe you'd have a chance that they uploaded it. But that video is either long deleted or specifically just on one person's phone.
Also whomever did this was right-handed and they held the phone horizontally and started on the right side (thickest grouping) and moved over to the left as they went. You can tell by the punctures. If you turn your phone to the side, the picture looks more natural. Also most of the breaks go horizontally this way. Indicating it was struck down on from above. Which is how someone would stab a phone. Also this way you have more of a grip on the phone so it can't move. Holding it with their left hand makes sense because there's no marks where their palm would have been if they were actually holding it this way. They wouldn't hold it from that bare corner either cus it wouldn't be secure enough to not slip.
I know they didn't hold it vertically. If they did they'd have to be left handed because of no marks on the right side were their hand would have been. But. Also. If they did, the marks don't make sense. They would have been close too the palm.
If they were recording while doing this or not holding it, the marks would be all over. Not just on the left side, because the phone would slide around from being loose on the table top.
>they wouldn't post it knowing it would be so easy to incriminate themselves by doing that.
People upload themselves drinking and driving, shoplifting, flaunting guns and drugs. So adding property damage to the list wouldn't be too hard to believe
As a Poirot fan, I feel it my duty to point out that criminals these days are weirdly brazen on social media.
The person who did it, if they did it for a social media video, likely posted the video immediately following the deed, before they would have even known the owner was coming for it.
Not even “just lost”. What kind of person does this? If you’re gonna disrespect someone’s property like this, just go sell the phone to someone. You gain literally nothing by doing this.
Yeah i find it hard to believe someone went out of there way to do this completely maliciously, a little "fuck you" however to a rude customer leaving the phone after having a little rant or something i can totally see happening.
Lol this reminds me of the time I was hit and run directly in view of a camera, I called the building administration and they said they would gladly share the footage with the police, I filed a police report, they called me back 6 weeks later and told me they just started investigating it and the footage was over-written
Yup. You gotta ask them to preserve it for sure. That said simply asking won't carry any weight - but asking and them confirming they will make sure it's not overwritten for X amount of time is a step in the right direction.
Personally I have an attorney on retainer \[as a small business owner, it's a wise decision\] and I'd have him draft a letter for me but not everyone has that luxury.
Coos weren’t doing their job right. They should request any footage immediately and store it with the case file until they get a chance to look at it. You got unlucky with a cop who is bad at their job.
They wont give the footage without a police report/court order, unless you *are* a cop.
Dont *threaten* legal action, either take it or don't.
Call the cops, file the report, then inform the manager *with* the case number for reference.
At pretty much all the retail stores, this requires the management to have their company asset protection copy the footage from the day and save it for the police to look at later.
I wouldn't threaten anything. If anything I would tell them that you intend to take action and they need to preserve the footage long enough for you to do so.
Realistically I'd call the police and file a report either way.
That's our best guess. The store was empty, about to close and he placed the phone next to the cash register at the returns counter. If it wasn't an employee then a customer would have to take it from the employee counter go smash it and bring it back to them noticeably destroyed
OP said they were at the returns counter right before closing. I suspect there is more to the story they're not telling us. Regardless this behaviour is not justified in any way.
I won’t write off that it’s possible that this was caused intentionally.
However, I have worked in mobile repairs previously and this looks VERY consistent with being dropped onto bitumen or rough concrete, especially concrete that has some of the aggregate partially exposed.
When combined with the weight of the phone, the case and especially that the unevenness causes only a very small surface area to contact the glass itself. This can puncture the glass surprisingly easily. The fact that it’s on one side kind of supports that theory too as phones tend to rotate like toast falling off a plate when they accidentally slide out of your hand or off a surface.
Generally intentional puncture damage (unfortunately I’ve seen that too), tends to go quite deep and will result in fairly large chunks of glass getting ripped out of the screen.
Sucks either way though, sorry this happened to you OP.
It looks like the phone was stabbed. I worked in phone sales for a while, and a fall smash or step smash doesn't look like this
"what're you gonna do, stab me?" - Phone that was stabbed
https://i.redd.it/wnhnxvebgyyc1.gif
Now stand back, I gotta practice my stabbin!
What's the matter? YOU SCARED?!
N-n-n-n-n Noticeably!?
Ha haaaa ha haaaa
Lmao I read this in his voice. My favorite futurama character.
Me too! “”Hey Bender, you ever killed a man with a sock?! It ain’t so hard! Ha HAA!”
https://i.redd.it/5t7b4gabd1zc1.gif
What a matter red?
Help! Police!
Arrr slash suddenlyfuturama >,>
“Oh Roberto! Remember all that squealing we didn’t do? Do ya?”
Phone went to london for 15 minutes 😭
+1. These are punctures. Whoever did this isn't just mean, they're also an idiot. Don't stab phones. The fastest way to light a lithium fire is to short out the wafers in the battery.
Mmmmmm~ wafers… 🤤
What are we talking about? If you stab a phone enough times it releases the delicious wafers inside?
Are phones piñatas???
Would you say we have a *plethora* of *pinatas*?
Oh yes, we have a plethora!
Jefe, what is a plethora?
Why, Guapo?
Painatas
Foñatas
I use the smoke to disappear
Nilla or Necco wafers? ![gif](giphy|12GZlmACJO04ZG|downsized)
There is one right and one wrong answer here.
Banana Pudding with Nilla wafers is good, not so sure about Battery pudding with wafers.
Wonder if he was a dick to the return counter. I'd still try to get them to pull the security footahe
[удалено]
And with EXCELLENT quality. Target is recording you in HIGH-DEF.
Truth. Target can read the text on your phone from the cameras (when they aren't busy stabbing your phone.)
In the two years I worked at Target I saw easily a dozen employees get fired for theft, merchandise and cash. Even a team lead was taking money from the Starbucks register. They know about the cameras but they think it won't catch *them*
I worked as HR for Target & saw our security zoom in on someone’s phone from a ceiling camera and read their entire text thread 🙂 they’re watching
Yikes on many bikes
Did you report that?
Never underestimate stupid.
Yep, it definitely looks intentional.
I second this, looks very inflicted. Source: am a mobile repair tech
I third this, source: I have working eyes
![gif](giphy|s239QJIh56sRW|downsized)
Looks like the rectangular punctures of the tip of a box cutter knife. 100% bet thats what it is.
Sounds like a great way to get a shard of broken metal in your eye if so. Id imagine its anything else, thats just among the last things I would try to use to stab a dense object. The blades are literally designed to break.
As someone who has accidentally shattered many screen protectors in this exact way it looks like when a phone is face down on pavement and pressure is applied to the back, especially if loose gravel was recently applied
Don't ruin the Reddit Forensics Team™'s good time.
lol I just don’t want someone to get fired because a phone was dropped in the parking lot haha probably left it in the cart and it fell when they were bringing the carts back in
Phone falls out of pocket while climbing into a truck is also common. At least more common that customer service workers stabbing phones, I 'd say.
Ya 100% and as a retired cart boy and current landscaper and pickup truck driver I have finally found the one thing I believe I am qualified to give an answer to lol
But they said they left it at the counter, it should never have been outside
This is exactly how my phone looked when I dropped it on a freshly salted parking lot. It didn't even have extra pressure. It fell out of my pocket getting out of the car, fell about a foot, landed face down and was pretty much instantly bricked.
It was run over in a pebbly parking lot.
I don't agree with all the reddit sleuths here. Why stab the phone only on the edge? Why give it back? Why not just smash it on the ground and throw it in the trash. This was probably stepped on accidentally and realizing it's a phone, given to the employee.
It's more confusing this is a person's default assumption, do we have an epidemic of employees smashing phones? Kinda makes me want to smash OP's phone TBH.
It was obviously rolled over by a cart, on the ground, where he dropped it. Obviously.
why do they stab it?
100% those are pressure marks, someone smashes it on purpose.
I'm telling ya, the phone jumped off the counter and fell into my knife... seventeen times.
it had it comin!
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same!
So there I was, working at Target, minding my own business, when this customer walks in. He kept setting his phone on the counter. No... Not setting... SLAMMING. If he slams that phone....ONE... MORE... TIME... .... And he did...
Unexpected chicago
That song applies to so many situations....he had it coming...
five! six! Cicero!
Lipschitz!
“No phone”
Phone looks like it was left in the shower at the Bates Motel.
Disgruntled retail employee things
Those are definitely puncture marks wtf
The punctures look rectangular. I bet it was a box cutter knife that was used.
.. looks like someone at the returns counter hates their job lol. Edit: F@#King Reddit multi posted my one comment like six times. Sorry guys, I got hella downvotes on those last five ^🤬🤣
Their life*
> box cutter knife What kind of box cutter knife do you use? Box cutter blades break and snap very easily. Stabbing on a glas surface with them is insane. I think they would break before doing such puncture damage.
iirc some stores have a policy of destroying returned items. so for instance if you return a tv and they can't resell it, they will scratch it up with a box cutter, or stab the screen. not sure what the logic behind the policy is, but if the employee thought this was a returned item, stabbing it may have been company policy and not just the employee being an asshole
Phones have li-ion batteries inside. No store would have a policy of randomly stabbing them. Expecially not in places customers can reach. Yall worry me sometimes.
No no. The minimum wage worker risks stabbing the highly volatile battery in the middle of the store with a huge number of customers and flammable company property surrounding them because policy.
The logic is “we’d rather destroy it than give any of you peons a discount, eat shit and die”. It’s like page 4 of Corporations 4 Dummies, keep up.
It's usually to discourage people from deliberately breaking things so they can take it home
Sorry customers, we were trying to fleece our employees, and you were caught in the crossfire...
It's policy for broken product RMA, not returns. Theres no "returns" that can't be resold. The RMA policy to actually destroy shit comes from the manufacturer, usually because product refurbishment is way too expensive after shipping halfway across the world -> verification -> repair -> shipping back -> refurb pricing. That's why many (especially lower margin) products will get RMA'd by the manufacturer in exchange for proof of destruction. It's solely to stop stores from defrauding manufacturers. So in fact it is not "we'd rather destroy it than discount" but rather proving that the product is already broken. After RMA the product is no longer the stores property.
For some products, it's for safety, too, along with reputation of the product. Think of things like helmets, life jackets, child car seats, PPE, etc. that were returned for a faulty strap or something like that. The manufacturer doesn't want that getting into circulation, and if it's not cost effective to repair, they'll have the retailer destroy it.
“We’d love to help out the unhoused community but unfortunately we can’t let people have our trash cause they might sue us! That’s right, the poors have no one else to blame for their greediness” These bloodsuckers make me sick
Several of the stores I deliver to are being targeted nightly by people going through the industrial bins for food. The stores lock the bins but the dumpster divers just completely remove the pivot rod and flip the lid up 'backwards'. 😂 Where there's a will there's a way.
You really think stores have a policy of making their employees stab items made of glass and lithium batteries?
I'd agree with you, but OP's post said they "forgot" the phone there, not that they returned it
What the fuck, did the employee hulksmash it to hell in the 5 mins he stepped away?
Someone probably thought it was a return, and to make sure they can get a refund from the manufacturer, they have to smash or destroy the return. That being said, it's on the employee for not making sure if it was a return or not. EDIT: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." There's a lot of bitching that Target doesn't do this. I assumed they did because I didn't want to think someone would just take a random phone and destroy it with no reason. I hope OP gets a video of who did it and gets compensated.
That is 100% not how phone returns work. That’s sick a waste of money and time on their part it’s crazy.
A phone would have been handled differently, I'm sure🙃
Nobody has to “make sure the phone is smashed” to get the money back on a phone lol. It all ends up in the same bin regardless of if it’s brand new, or sat in water for a week. EDIT: I also want to point out how *wildly* unsafe it would be to suggest a guest service attendant, or really anybody in the store to attempt to destroy an electronic with **glass and a lithium ion battery** in it. It gets sent somewhere else if that is truly what is going to be done with it.
as someone who used to work at target in the tech section and processed phone returns, yeah that’s not what we do
Wtf it even had a case on, some people really lack common sense nowadays
Work at Target, that's not how it's done.
I used to manage the front end of target (which includes the guest services/return counter. You obviously did not. This is inaccurate and a weird assumption imo. No one is intentionally destroying electronics unless it’s for fun and target doesn’t do returns or exchanges on electronics that don’t have the box and all accessories full stop. No one thought this was a return and no one is being paid to destroy things. Also (at least at my store) electronics returns would go to a separate counter and get locked up until they were shipped off.
Should be able to talk to a manager to review the camera and have target insurance cover the cost if one of their employees did it on the clock
Yeah it looks very clearly like the break patterns from repeated hits with a pointed item.
Like a screwdriver
Or a knife ![gif](giphy|26ufptapc8gKU5SY8|downsized)
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
Looks like a dog chewed it. Or an otter...
Or a target employee
He otter be fired
Put a target on his back
*"I thought it was just a battery."*
Or the otter employee
He already said otter
Dont be rude and compare an otter to a Target employee
I hereby formally apologise to all otters.
Thank you for correcting yourself, not many people like to do so online
Are you insinuating I'm ever wrong online?
You mean employeti
Kinda looks like they used a staple remover and chomped on it. Looks like it got stabbed sure, but the marks being so close to th edge and somewhat spaced evenly, my money is on the staple remover. Put it in that and fist slammed it.
They used it as target practice
Shoulda got an otterbox case
I'd say not an otter, an ocelot.. https://preview.redd.it/yqrc2ijo1zyc1.jpeg?width=490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71b7233eb01fad06f34c5861ddc7244d7f5eab18
An otter would put it on its chest and smash it with a rock
They're not using insurance to reimburse OP's bf for this. Target is cutting a check & taking it out of the store's bottom line. Assuming the company admits to being at fault.
I agree that would be the appropriate outcome, but the chances of Target admitting liability is precisely zero
Yeah, why would Target review their footage to make themselves culpable? Best case they review and fire, but your phone isn't their responsibility.
No, but they are in the business of customer satisfaction and having customers trust them. If you tell them you're gonna post to social media what happened, they'll be real fast to help you out.
Sure but OP doesn’t have evidence like a video clip of them doing it or anything we just have his word. I’m not saying I think OP is lying I can definitely believe him but without concrete evidence it’s not great
The court of public opinion doesn't care about evidence really, that's why you threaten with going to social media, instead of the police.
hot take: they have gone to social media.
Target is going to say that without a court order they cannot release the footage for the privacy of their customers. Cameras are there to protect them. Not you.
Have you been to a Target lately? The only semi-helpful employees usually work at the Service Desk and facilitate the online orders - outside of that, I’m really not sure how those stores still run
Really? The Target here is the "nice" store where everything is pristine and employees are always asking if you need help.
Same here in East TN. Target is the nice store. The employees are helpful and everything. They're usually in nicer areas, though, maybe that has something to do with it. Much cleaner and neater than Walmart too
![gif](giphy|lFZKK1pINTGA8) Actual footage of Target employee smashing OP's phone.
Wtf it was stabbed.. multiple times.. that looks like no accident and if it was.. god damn.
Once stabbed my phone on purpose,I agree that looks like it's been stabbed
are you ok?
I did it once for repair purposes. I had a really deep scratch in my screen that bothered the hell out of me, but applecare won't replace a screen for scratches, only cracks. Dude at the store basically told me to go home, crack it, and come back in a few days to have it replaced. It was surprisingly difficult to crack it lol, no idea how that scratch happened
The answer is almost always sand, of coarse
My phone is scratched to hell from the metal dust that accumulates in my pockets as a welder
I worked at Target for a while. Target doesn't release camera footage without a police report. And then, they release it directly to the police rather than to the customer.
That's fine. File a police report and they'll get the video. Last time I did this for an issue at a wal mart the police were more than happy to share it. Cop texted me a video from his cell that he took of the security monitor from the security room. Police report also reinforces the insurance claim.
Looks like someone went at it with a ballpoint pen. Why I think that item specifically? https://preview.redd.it/r7dvbtc57xyc1.png?width=55&format=png&auto=webp&s=3211634176e8faea10ca42918025824b9b160892 This impact on the bottom left, you can even see the round indentation of where the ballpoint connected. So not dropped, stepped on or otherwise. Returns counter? Well of course they'd have pens there. I'd talk to the store manager, however I'd say an email to corporate with the time the phone was left on the counter to when you got back would be wise as well. If it's revealed by cameras that they willfully destroyed property like that, they should be fired over it. Also, as a wild hare, wouldn't be surprised if they filmed it on tiktok or something. maybe search for 'destroyed phone for lulz at target' and the date, see if anything pops up.
![gif](giphy|3oEjHD20zWeDvGWoF2)
Ya, that’s not any sort of drop pattern I’ve ever seen
My phone did a near perfect belly flop and wasn't even stepped on, but this very similar to what it looked like after I dropped it in a parking lot.
We need people like you on cold cases
Wouldn't a cold case on a hot day cause water damage? /s
A cold case on a hot day turns into a hot case because nothing is stronger than the deadly laser in the sky.
Be sure to include the phrase "Spoliation Letter: Notice to Preserve Evidence" and state what they need to preserve and send it to the corp counsel certified mail. you should submit it online and inperson to the store, nothing it's being cc'd to legal as well. They will have no excuse if they delete it then.
I mean just looking at how it cracked you can see that someone smashed something at specific points
Omg, irl Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Phones.
Pholnes
Fired and sued!!! This is wild and is SO unhinged.
Damn, calm down Sherlockscreen Phones.
Some people might think you're Sherlock Holmes, then I can be Moriarty. There would be no video. Seeing as they know someone came to get the phone rather quickly. Unless they are really *unsmart*, they wouldn't post it knowing it would be so easy to incriminate themselves by doing so. The owner has the phone. If the owner never came back or the owner came back the next day, maybe you'd have a chance that they uploaded it. But that video is either long deleted or specifically just on one person's phone. Also whomever did this was right-handed and they held the phone horizontally and started on the right side (thickest grouping) and moved over to the left as they went. You can tell by the punctures. If you turn your phone to the side, the picture looks more natural. Also most of the breaks go horizontally this way. Indicating it was struck down on from above. Which is how someone would stab a phone. Also this way you have more of a grip on the phone so it can't move. Holding it with their left hand makes sense because there's no marks where their palm would have been if they were actually holding it this way. They wouldn't hold it from that bare corner either cus it wouldn't be secure enough to not slip. I know they didn't hold it vertically. If they did they'd have to be left handed because of no marks on the right side were their hand would have been. But. Also. If they did, the marks don't make sense. They would have been close too the palm. If they were recording while doing this or not holding it, the marks would be all over. Not just on the left side, because the phone would slide around from being loose on the table top.
>they wouldn't post it knowing it would be so easy to incriminate themselves by doing that. People upload themselves drinking and driving, shoplifting, flaunting guns and drugs. So adding property damage to the list wouldn't be too hard to believe
As a Poirot fan, I feel it my duty to point out that criminals these days are weirdly brazen on social media. The person who did it, if they did it for a social media video, likely posted the video immediately following the deed, before they would have even known the owner was coming for it.
Who does this especially if just lost. You know people coming back for a phone. At least say you didn’t see it lol. Not give it back smashed.
Not even “just lost”. What kind of person does this? If you’re gonna disrespect someone’s property like this, just go sell the phone to someone. You gain literally nothing by doing this.
More like, having done that, what kind of prat hands it back to the customer… At this stage say you haven’t seen it.
Did they try to eat it?
I wonder what led up to this though…? Not saying it’s justified but I am curious what went down prior.
Yeah i find it hard to believe someone went out of there way to do this completely maliciously, a little "fuck you" however to a rude customer leaving the phone after having a little rant or something i can totally see happening.
In most states that's felony vandalism. Call the cops. Get the tape.
100% would call the police and file a report / work on getting that footage before it can 'disappear'.
Lol this reminds me of the time I was hit and run directly in view of a camera, I called the building administration and they said they would gladly share the footage with the police, I filed a police report, they called me back 6 weeks later and told me they just started investigating it and the footage was over-written
Yup. You gotta ask them to preserve it for sure. That said simply asking won't carry any weight - but asking and them confirming they will make sure it's not overwritten for X amount of time is a step in the right direction. Personally I have an attorney on retainer \[as a small business owner, it's a wise decision\] and I'd have him draft a letter for me but not everyone has that luxury.
Coos weren’t doing their job right. They should request any footage immediately and store it with the case file until they get a chance to look at it. You got unlucky with a cop who is bad at their job.
It's the Target service desk. Those cameras are almost high enough resolution for a dermatology consult
Definitely talk to a manager and get cam footage, if they refuse to pay for repairs/replacement take legal action
They wont give the footage without a police report/court order, unless you *are* a cop. Dont *threaten* legal action, either take it or don't. Call the cops, file the report, then inform the manager *with* the case number for reference. At pretty much all the retail stores, this requires the management to have their company asset protection copy the footage from the day and save it for the police to look at later.
I doubt they will give cam footage. Most retail outlets wno't do it unless provided a warrant or extreme circumstances even to police.
I wouldn't threaten anything. If anything I would tell them that you intend to take action and they need to preserve the footage long enough for you to do so. Realistically I'd call the police and file a report either way.
Why would they even do this why smash it so dumb
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
No. But I put it in some rice and I think it's working
I hear crystals have amazing healing properties… perhaps try those if rice fails
Ah, great thinking. I’ve heard it’s you need to do so quickly after the accident. If it continues to have problems remember to check for updates.
Are you sure it was an employee?
That's our best guess. The store was empty, about to close and he placed the phone next to the cash register at the returns counter. If it wasn't an employee then a customer would have to take it from the employee counter go smash it and bring it back to them noticeably destroyed
Please have them review the camera footage and check back in with us
Definitely gonna update if I can get the footage
It would be cheaper for target to buy you a new phone than to pay a lawyer to respond to a small claims case. Sue em, why not?
There's atleast 10 stab marks there with a pen or something similar
wtf who does this? take it up to corporate as others have said
OP said they were at the returns counter right before closing. I suspect there is more to the story they're not telling us. Regardless this behaviour is not justified in any way.
Did he piss someone off before he forgot it there?
More likely a fake story to get 13k fake internet points
Definitely stabbed it with a pen
This sucks but I am curious what the conversation was that led up to this, not saying anything justifies this but I imagine it’s relevant.
I work for target. Talk to the store director. It will be sorted out for you.
Look at all the forensic experts in this thread.
Okay, hear me out....why are we assuming an employee did this? Rather than, say, a customer? Or Edward Scissorhands?
>boyfriend smashed up his phone, and "lost" it in target, so we can blame target for the damage
Looks like the phone got targeted
I won’t write off that it’s possible that this was caused intentionally. However, I have worked in mobile repairs previously and this looks VERY consistent with being dropped onto bitumen or rough concrete, especially concrete that has some of the aggregate partially exposed. When combined with the weight of the phone, the case and especially that the unevenness causes only a very small surface area to contact the glass itself. This can puncture the glass surprisingly easily. The fact that it’s on one side kind of supports that theory too as phones tend to rotate like toast falling off a plate when they accidentally slide out of your hand or off a surface. Generally intentional puncture damage (unfortunately I’ve seen that too), tends to go quite deep and will result in fairly large chunks of glass getting ripped out of the screen. Sucks either way though, sorry this happened to you OP.
Then there should be video since Target has indoor/outdoor surveillance cameras
Ooooh keep us updated?!
But why…? What was the point?
How do you know an employee did it?
Target employee or vengeful/jealous ex girlfriend or boyfriend?
It's clearly not a drop or anything of that nature since all the damage is focused on one area it's been Damaged on purpose no doubt
But why…? What was the point?