Phone stolen while backpacking in Peru

[OvertiredandConfused]

My DS(22) is backpacking, currently in Peru. He’s had his phone stolen. We’ve blocked the phone and frozen his bank account and Monzo and changed his email password

Looks like someone has cleared the few hundred pounds he had in Monzo but everything else seems intact at the moment.

He’s drunk and upset. Anyone have any pointers for what else I need to do? And how best to get him another phone in (not quite darkest) Peru?

Insurance will get him a replacement phone but it won’t get it out to him so I’m not sure whether he’d be better getting something over there. It doesn’t need to be fancy but it does need to work for banking apps, boarding passes and that sort of thing

Absolutely no point trying to help him while he is drunk.
let him sober up and then come up with a plan

Let him figure it out. You have done your bit. He's an adult and it's an important life lesson.
Buy a cheap phone locally with SIM & carry on with travel

Just send him some money via one of those telegram services and let him buy a cheap phone for himself.

Buy a local phone and SIM card and grow up! They saw him coming didn’t they!

Peru has shops. He can buy a new cheap phone til he gets replacement

Surely a 22 year old man can figure this out for himself

Thank you. I do know Peru has shops and I do know that he needs to sort most of this himself.

I refused to have a proper conversation with him while he was drunk but I’m not going to sit back and let the situation gets worse while he sobers up either. That’s why I’ve done the basics and I was just curious about whether others have similar experience that they wanted to share.

You’ve done all you can on your end. As long as he’s safe, and has access to money then he should be able to buy a phone locally. He really should be careful about getting drunk though.

I think you have done enough OP. Your son is 22 years old. And should be making inroads into sorting this out himself. I would worry that he has relied so much on you to do so for him.

I’m not going to sit back and let the situation gets worse while he sobers up either

How do you imagine it's going to get worse? He's a grown up. He can buy himself a new phone and set it up without your help.

I’m surprised you were able to do so much remotely unless you already had access to all his passwords etc beforehand.

There isn’t anything else for you to do. He gets a cheap phone and looks after it better. He needs to be able to deal with this shit himself.

I’m amazed how many people don’t password protect their bank cards for use with apple/android pay.

Suggest this for next time.

His only option is to buy a new one. If he is somewhere rural he may need to travel to the nearest city.

He prepared for this eventuality, as did the friend with whom he’s travelling and they left enough information to handle basic security in case they were not able to do it themselves – admittedly I was thinking more about him being in hospital than drunk!

He also put most of his money to fund the trip into a bank account that I could access and has asked me to transfer what he needs on a weekly basis. Again, he was planning sensibly when he was sober

I know he’s an adult. But he graduated last year and has saved up for this trip before looking for a permanent job. It would’ve been worse if we’d waited for him to sober up to do those basic things. I’m quite happy now to sit back and make him take the lead. I will respond if he asks me to help with specific tasks that aren’t unreasonable.

And I will probably lend him some of the money that has been stolen so that he can complete the trip. but it will be a loan and he’s very lucky that I can do that.

Will the thieves have got the cash from the Monzo by tapping? Or did he think they could actually unlock the phone and his account? Hopefully it’s the former.

What a very understanding post! The op’s ds is probably upset, as most of us would be if our phones were stolen. This is another example of the MN school of parenting. As soon as they hit 18, you have to withdraw all concern and compassion and leave them to their fate. If an older family member, say your own parent, suffered a theft while abroad and contacted you for support, would you really say to them “they saw you coming! Grow up!”? Maybe you would…

Just because he’s an adult doesn’t mean he doesn’t need help. If it was your friend, you’d do whatever was required so of course you do it with your son! Hope he’s ok, what a nightmare!

I’ve zero advice of what else you can do but can’t think of anything you haven’t done.