Every 24 hours there are nearly 200 cell phones stolen in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) has registered 116,824 stolen cell phones over the past 20 months and 15 days. Today there are 2,321,477 registered cell phones in the Dominican Republic, including digital, analog and stationary units. Both Centennial and Tricom have expressed their concern to INDOTEL for what they perceive to be a wave of stolen cellular phones. Tricom says that they attend between six and twelve calls a day on stolen cell phones. Verizon has said that they have replaced 5,101 units that were stolen or lost. INDOTEL has over 80,000 blocked numbers, of which 32,000 have been recovered. The regulations instituted by Indotel have managed to slow the activation of stolen cell phones, according to reporter Yulendys Jorge from El Caribe. In the ?marketplace,? however, there is software available that allows the series of the particular cell phone to be modified. The chief of INODTEL, Orlando Jorge Mera, said that the institute is now working on a database that will include the entire stock of cell phones brought into the country by the phone companies, as well as those brought in by individuals. Scores of people have reported that their cell phones were stolen on the street by people on motorcycles, or in ?brush-by? incidents being perfected by young criminals. Elevators, buses, taxi stops and lineups are the favorite places for these criminals to operate.