Are any of these yours?

Mayor Vince Gray and D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier made a big to-do today about the Metropolitan Police Department’s newest community service: a website devoted to solutions for people who have their mobile phones stolen.

In a press conference at which Gray and Lanier were backed up by a phalanx of khaki-uniformed MPD recruits, the pair unveiled BrickIt.DC.gov, which offers tips on what steps to take when a personal electronic device is taken. “Bricking” is the process by which a mobile phone carrier renders a device useless.

Until recently, such a technique was unavailable to U.S. consumers who had their phones stolen, but after lobbying by Lanier and other police chiefs around the country, the Federal Communications Commission and companies like AT&T and Verizon announced they would offer to permanently disable stolen phones.

Previously, if a person’s phone was stolen after, say, he or she was mugged while walking through Columbia Heights, it was possible to uncouple the device from the person’s account, but the phone’s new owner could just as easily re-activate the device.

“Cell phones remain the primary item taken in a robbery,” Lanier said in prepared remarks.

Much as D.C. hyped up the new website, it’s actually a pretty low-tech thing. The URL redirects to a page on MPD’s website featuring a few paragraphs explaining bricking. After that, it offers links to the FCC’s website, which in turn directs robbery victims to their respective phone companies’ deactivation services.