son's stolen/lost phone

[1805]

DS (13) is on holiday abroad with a friends family. He has just messaged me to say his phone is stolen (he's lost it???). What do I do? Do I ask the friends mother to report it? Do I just write it off to bad luck? Help!

What phone and on what deal?
If it's on contract straight onto the provider and block the sim or you'll get huge bill.

If it's a sub £100 phone I'd just write it off. More expensive it might be worth looking t your travel insurance. We have " gold plated" house insurance that covers this dirt of thngs all over the world - lost or stolen ( only because we had to have a house policy that covered musical instruments on tour ..).

iPhones and some androids ( if you've registered them ) can be remotely wiped / blocked too. Be interesting so see if it's showing on the " find my phone" app too.

Depends on where it is but my kids/ their mates and even 40yr old friend of mine, have had really poor experience with police whilst reporting theft in order to access insurance cover - the teens/ early 20s I can see why - thry just assume they are drunk / drugged / clubbing and careless but the 40+yr olds had a hotel room break in in Paris - the hotel and the police coukdnt care less it just wasted holiday ine.

it's an iPhone 5, with a new battery. He said he used 'find my phone' which located it in an apartment on friday - which is change over day. Now it's not showing up anywhere. He is on a PAYG deal.
Do I bother the Mum with this?

He knew where it was on Friday but not now? Did he look properly then. Are they still in the same place?

If genuinely stolen it needs reporting locally for you to have any chance of claiming on insurance and the mum will need to be involved.

Ask her to contact the local police and report it stolen, I'm certain that you will need some kind of crime reference number to make a claim on the travel insurance.

You should also contact your travel insurance provider to report the theft and let them know you want to make a claim.

he tracked it on friday to nearby, but then he couldn't connect to it anymore after then.
I have told the mum and asked her to try and get a reference number, but not to go to too much trouble.