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All iPads Found iPad

Mx356

Mx356

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2008
92
6
Hello,

Just a quick question for you guys. I found an iPad on a flight and tried to turn it in. The agents would not take it so now I still have it. I filed a report with the airline's lost and found but they can not tell me if the other person has filed one.

I talked with a very nice guy at there Customer Relations and they advised to take it to the Apple store and see if they could tell me who it belonged to.

The Apple store stated they can see whose it is but they cannot give me that information to contact them and they cannot contact them either. I have the serial # and there is a engraving on the back, is there a way to locate the owner by the serial #?

Just trying to get this back to the owner so any help is greatly appreciated.
 
I don't think there is unfortunately...

Does it have a password on it?

If not, you might want to try and connect it to Wi-Fi, so that the owner can activate the "Find My iPad" - provided they activated it before hand...
 
Mx356 said:
Hello,

Just a quick question for you guys. I found an iPad on a flight and tried to turn it in. The agents would not take it so now I still have it. I filed a report with the airline's lost and found but they can not tell me if the other person has filed one.

I talked with a very nice guy at there Customer Relations and they advised to take it to the Apple store and see if they could tell me who it belonged to.

The Apple store stated they can see whose it is but they cannot give me that information to contact them and they cannot contact them either. I have the serial # and there is a engraving on the back, is there a way to locate the owner by the serial #?

Just trying to get this back to the owner so any help is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Everyone is so afraid of lawyers and being sued, no one can do the common sense thing here. Its ridiculous the rules these companies follow to simply do the right thing and help somebody out who lost a device. Everyone is running scared. It makes no sense that the apple store in particular could not contact the owner. Common sense is lost in this world.
 
I don't understand. I'm a little dense, so bear with me :)

Certainly, if I left something valuable on a plane, I would hope it would be turned in to the lost and found , and not 'given' to some stranger, no matter what his intentions may be.


You say they wouldn't take it, and you say there was no 'claim' filed. But when people travel, it may take a few days for them to discover the missing item, but apparently you must of gone there soon after you found it.

Could you explain this for us?

Thanks
 
I had a similar situation last month. Fortunately the owner left their ticket stub behind the smart cover, so the airline was able to get it back to him.

Like others have suggested, get it on WiFi and see if it pings anything on Find My iPhone. If nothing happens after a while, then you've inherited a new iPad...likely useless though if it's passworded on iOS 7.

At any rate, you've done everything you can for now to get it back to its original owner. Nice to know there's still honest people out there.
 
Take your story to a hungry investigative reporter at your local news station.

"Airline and Apple both refuse to help good Samaritan return lost ipad! News at 11!"

I bet the ipad will find its way home then.


BTW - lockscreen on my ipad (still on iOS6) has "If Found Call xxx-xxx-xxxx" text embedded on the picture.
 
Take it to the lost and found at the airport and just drop it off with them. Tell them you found it on a flight then walk away. It's the airlines responsibility not yours.
 
On my lock screen, before punching in my pass code, if I press and hold home button Siri works and if I ask who I am she tells me and shows my contact info. Depending on how person set up their iPad, maybe...
 
Peace said:
Take it to the lost and found at the airport and just drop it off with them. Tell them you found it on a flight then walk away. It's the airlines responsibility not yours.
Click to expand...

It's as simple as that. This seems like he wants it but will try to find the owner first. This is actually a bit disturbing to me :D

But then again, I'm probably just suspicious .
 
Macalway said:
I don't understand. I'm a little dense, so bear with me :)

Certainly, if I left something valuable on a plane, I would hope it would be turned in to the lost and found , and not 'given' to some stranger, no matter what his intentions may be.


You say they wouldn't take it, and you say there was no 'claim' filed. But when people travel, it may take a few days for them to discover the missing item, but apparently you must of gone there soon after you found it.

Could you explain this for us?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Sure. I found the iPad on my flight on Oct 31. When we were getting off I went to the Airline's lost and found and they would not take it for whatever reason. I went on to the Airlines website and filled out a Lost and Found form to report that I found one and put in the particular flight numbers, cities, and all that. I contacted the lost and found phone # several days later since I didn't hear anything and they could not tell me if someone had reported it lost or not.

Wasn't happy with that answer so I called the Airlines Customer Relations # and they do not have a way of just searching for a particular item but they would have to have the actual file #. The agent suggested I take it to the Apple store to see if they could give me the info. Took it there and they stated that they can see who it belongs too but they cannot give me that information and they cannot contact them to let them know that there iPad was found.
 
Mx356 said:
Sure. I found the iPad on my flight on Oct 31. When we were getting off I went to the Airline's lost and found and they would not take it for whatever reason. I went on to the Airlines website and filled out a Lost and Found form to report that I found one and put in the particular flight numbers, cities, and all that. I contacted the lost and found phone # several days later since I didn't hear anything and they could not tell me if someone had reported it lost or not.

Wasn't happy with that answer so I called the Airlines Customer Relations # and they do not have a way of just searching for a particular item but they would have to have the actual file #. The agent suggested I take it to the Apple store to see if they could give me the info. Took it there and they stated that they can see who it belongs too but they cannot give me that information and they cannot contact them to let them know that there iPad was found.
Click to expand...

They wouldn't take it? :confused:

This is where I'm lost.

Why did you take it off the plane in the first place?

This is likely to source of the problem. Once you removed it from the plane, it causes problems
 
Mx356 said:
Sure. I found the iPad on my flight on Oct 31. When we were getting off I went to the Airline's lost and found and they would not take it for whatever reason. I went on to the Airlines website and filled out a Lost and Found form to report that I found one and put in the particular flight numbers, cities, and all that. I contacted the lost and found phone # several days later since I didn't hear anything and they could not tell me if someone had reported it lost or not.

Wasn't happy with that answer so I called the Airlines Customer Relations # and they do not have a way of just searching for a particular item but they would have to have the actual file #. The agent suggested I take it to the Apple store to see if they could give me the info. Took it there and they stated that they can see who it belongs too but they cannot give me that information and they cannot contact them to let them know that there iPad was found.
Click to expand...

Sorry but that sounds very fishy. For "whatever reason" ? You could have simply left it there and walked away. I've never heard of any airline that wouldn't keep a lost iPad . It's their job.
 
Macalway said:
It's as simple as that. This seems like he wants it but will try to find the owner first. This is actually a bit disturbing to me :D

But then again, I'm probably just suspicious .
Click to expand...

I have an iPad so have no reason of "wanting" this one. Also I wouldn't be trying to do whatever I could to locate the owner if i "wanted" it. Just trying to do the right thing and get it back to the owner, which is what I would hope someone would do if I lost mine.

Trying every avenue I can to get it back to them (filed report with the Airline, went to Apple, etc.)

----------
Peace said:
Sorry but that sounds very fishy. For "whatever reason" ? You could have simply left it there and walked away. I've never heard of any airline that wouldn't keep a lost iPad . It's their job.
Click to expand...

Right, it is there job, which is why I couldn't understand why they wouldn't take it.
 
Mx356 said:
I have an iPad so have no reason of "wanting" this one. Also I wouldn't be trying to do whatever I could to locate the owner if i "wanted" it. Just trying to do the right thing and get it back to the owner, which is what I would hope someone would do if I lost mine.

Trying every avenue I can to get it back to them (filed report with the Airline, went to Apple, etc.)
Click to expand...

Good for you. Hopefully it works out. I would hope someone would do the same if I lost mine.
 
Mx356 said:
I have an iPad so have no reason of "wanting" this one. Also I wouldn't be trying to do whatever I could to locate the owner if i "wanted" it. Just trying to do the right thing and get it back to the owner, which is what I would hope someone would do if I lost mine.

Trying every avenue I can to get it back to them (filed report with the Airline, went to Apple, etc.)

----------



Right, it is there job, which is why I couldn't understand why they wouldn't take it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, ok. It's a clusterfuk :D
 
Macalway said:
They wouldn't take it? :confused:

This is where I'm lost.

Why did you take it off the plane in the first place?

This is likely to source of the problem. Once you removed it from the plane, it causes problems
Click to expand...

I took it off to turn it in so no one would just take it.

Like I said just trying to do the right thing here and tried to turn it in to the airline
 
koa said:
On my lock screen, before punching in my pass code, if I press and hold home button Siri works and if I ask who I am she tells me and shows my contact info. Depending on how person set up their iPad, maybe...
Click to expand...

Can confirm that this works as long as Siri is available on the lock screen.
 
Patriot24 said:
Can confirm that this works as long as Siri is available on the lock screen.
Click to expand...

It says Siri is not available since its not connected to the wifi.

----------
deeddawg said:
Why didn't you hand it to the flight attendants standing at the doorway wishing you a nice day?
Click to expand...

Cause they stated to take it to the Lost and Found and told me thanks for trying to turn it in
 
I'd be wary of letting it connect to WIFI so that it can be found. People are crazy sometimes with that and will try to break into your house to get it because they think you stole it. Not sure what the deal with the airport was, but at this point I'd make a Craigslist ad and ask if they can identify the engraving. I also think there are some websites that let you post serial numbers for missing devices. If Apple can give you the serial at least then you could potentially find them. Otherwise if all that fails it's not your problem, just go leave it in an Apple Store and walk away.

It's stories like this that make me want to get the LTE version of the Mini Retina so I can always connect to it to find it easily with GPS.
 
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