After mid-day highlighted the growing scope of mobile theft rackets and the painstaking investigation by the Trombay police in one such case, Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on Wednesday met the team and expressed his appreciation for their hard work.

This newspaper in its July 9 edition reported how the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), a central government initiative to track and block stolen phones, comes at a time when the mobile phone black market has gone international. Once sold to retailers in Mumbai and nearby areas, phones that are stolen from the city are now being smuggled into countries like Nepal and Bangladesh, where they are sold in the open markets at throwaway rates.