geenstijl.nl After a Dutch blogger's cell phone disappeared, photos from it continued to be automatically uploaded on Flickr. A manhunt ensued in the Dutch blogosphere.

UPDATE NOV. 14: This story has unfolded further since I originally posted this item on Nov. 13. Dutch blogger Martijn van Es  now writes that some of his original assumptions were incorrect. His mobile phone was not stolen but lost, he says. The two boys pictured were just at the wrong place at the wrong time and not involved with the story. "I have my mobile back," he says. "And that is what counts for me."

Dutch blogger Martijn van Es proved that new technology is making it harder to steal -- or permanently lose -- mobile phones.

On his mobile phone, he programmed the free mobile photo-sharing service Shozu to automatically upload to his Flickr account any photos taken on that phone. After his phone went missing, new pictures began appearing on Flickr.

It is unclear whether the boys in the pictures were actually involved in the phone's disappearance. A national hunt developed in the Dutch blogosphere, and the phone was returned to its rightful owner.