Ludhiana, Nov. 25 -- Residents may have moved on after losing their mobile phones, but the devices haven't disappeared - at least not from the digital map. More than 3,000 phones reported lost, stolen or snatched this year remain untraced, prompting the Khanna cyber crime police to file an FIR to finally bring the sprawling issue onto official record.

Investigators suspect many of these handsets have travelled through the hands of burglars, snatchers and even unsuspecting buyers.

Some are still active, but with new SIM cards - a detail flagged by the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which helped police compile a detailed list of numbers, IMEIs and brands.

Superintendent of police (SP, detective) Pawanjit Chaudhary said while...