I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised if I told you that a lot of phones get lost, misplaced or even stolen in Las Vegas. With all the partying and drinking that can go on over there, there’s bound to be some lost phones each night. And whenever people lose their phones these days, what do they do? Why, they track it of course. Unfortunately for the innocent Wayne Dobson, ‘find my phone’ type location services always seem to pinpoint the same place as the location of lost/stole devices: his house.

Dobson has been having this problem for 2 years now. People come knocking on his door at all hours during the day, sometimes even screaming and accusing him of stealing their phones. (It isn’t entirely clear if it is iPhones only, or other smartphones too.) He’s begun sleeping near the door on weekends because he knows that people will eventually come knocking and he’ll have to answer and explain. To try and help with the problem, Dobson has even posted a sign outside his house that reads:

NO LOST CELL PHONES!!

This location gives a false “phone locator” position due to a cell tower behind the home. Please contact the North Las Vegas police and file a report

NO LOST CELL PHONES!!

On really unlucky days, police are sometimes sent to his house because GPS coordinates tell them that he called 911 — even though the ones that called were people that lived nearby.

Why exactly is this happening to Dobson? It isn’t entirely clear but it is thought a Sprint cell site behind Dobson’s home might be the cause of the bug, and experts are saying it might due to a problem with the switch board. Whatever the cause, all I can say is: talk about bad luck.

[via Gizmodo]