Register Cell Phone IMEIs or MEIDs with a national database similar to VIN Numbers for automobiles

Thefts of smartphones and other mobile devices increased in major cities nationwide in 2013, despite new efforts by law enforcement and the industry to reduce what has become an epidemic of often violent street crime, according to new police figures obtained by The Huffington Post.

Wireless carriers have started sharing blacklists of stolen phones so they can block those devices from being reactivated on their networks. But the blacklists have thus far failed to stop thieves from snatching phones and trafficking them overseas, where they can be sold for higher prices and be reactivated on foreign wireless networks, a Huffington Post investigation found last year.

113 cell phones are lost or stolen every minute in the U.S.

$7 million worth of smartphones are lost daily. 

One in five children aged 8 to 16 has had their mobile phone stolen, often by another child or group of children.

With an estimate 96% of the US population currently using cell phones, it is clear that cell phone loss and theft is becoming more and more an issue.