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..to the lucky bastard who lost his 3G iPhone in the Pittsburgh airport

M

maokh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 9, 2007
260
18
Seattle, WA
...your welcome ;) Hopefully he/she picked it up in lost and found before they left.

If you found an iPhone in a public location with no owner, what would you do? Would you turn it in....or take it home?
 
I would turn it in somehow, whether it be to a lost and found, the AT&T store (not sure if they'd take it, but they could probably trace who the owner is and contact them), or even a local police station or something like that. This is somebody's phone after all, and a somewhat expensive one too.

But in your case, there is a decent chance that the person who lost it was leaving the airport to go home, or was connecting flights to go to another airport. In which case it would probably be cheaper just to leave it there, and have AT&T cancel the line and buy a new phone. And you might be able to have the airport destroy the device to protect whatever info may be on it, but that is just my guess.
 
Well, first I'd try ring a few numbers that are on the Phone (if it wasn't passworded), to see if I could get in contact with a relative or friend who'd pick it up, or tell the owner, so he/she could come get it.
If that failed, I'd take it to those police lost and found places... Y'know, where you hand something in like a wallet, they try find the owner or whatever, if no one claims in within the time limit, it's yours for keeps! :D

I wouldn't take it home though, why would I? I have one, no need for two. :rolleyes:
 
techlover828 said:
I've heard of them doing it all the time. I would ring a few numbers to try to figure out whos it in, then I'd turn it in. I don't really steal things.
Click to expand...

i havent..

if i lost my phone and called up att, they wouldnt tell me where it is.

now if someone turned my lost phone into att, then id expect att to get ahold of me


but back on topic, id try calling a few numbers and go from there
 
As much as I would love to keep it (if I didn't have one), I would make myself hand it in purely because of the value of it.
Whereas if I were to find $50 for example, straight into my pocket :p
 
hellomoto4 said:
As much as I would love to keep it (if I didn't have one), I would make myself hand it in purely because of the value of it.
Whereas if I were to find $50 for example, straight into my pocket :p
Click to expand...

oh if i found cash, its mine. i once found 60 bucks on a parking garage floor in vegas and i kept it. now if i saw a person drop any amount of cash, id pick it up and hand it back in a heartbeat

now i dont know what limit it would take for me to turn the cash in though lol
 
drichards said:
AT&T can locate the device, no sense in taking it home.
Click to expand...

Taking it home (better) or putting it in lost and found (best) are still better options than letting it sit there, since someone is fairly likely to come along who is willing to just take it and keep it...

Unless it's locked. If it's locked, then I guess you can keep it charged and wait for someone to ring it, but it's really much better off at lost and found than in your hands, otherwise.
 
I'd check all the pics. 1 good picture will pay for 100 iphones! Check all the emails for some insider tips, have a look through their music and delete all the tracks I don't like.

AND if it wasn't blocked I'd phone the last few called numbers find out who it belonged to and get it back to them.

Maybe.

Fox
 
If it wasn't locked, I'd check phone features (contacts, most-commonly dialed number, etc) and email for the addresses used for the defined accounts. If that info is there and not locked, I would take it home to mail to the owner getting the address from a hopefully clearly defined number (my phone has a "home" entry) or sending an email message to one or more of the defined email accounts.

If the phone is locked or the info is lacking, I'd turn it in to lost-and-found. I'd prefer to return it my self because "if you want something done right, do it yourself." I have very little faith in lost-and-found which is usually a storage bin filled with stuff that will never be claimed.
 
I would see if I couldn't find some identifying piece of information on it and then get it back to the owner. I would probably see if I couldn't call one of their "favorites" and track them down. Either way, I'd get it back to them as I've lost something and had it returned to me. It was nearly 8 months later, but it got to me.
 
maokh said:
...your welcome ;) Hopefully he/she picked it up in lost and found before they left.

If you found an iPhone in a public location with no owner, what would you do? Would you turn it in....or take it home?
Click to expand...

i would turn an iPhone in considering it's value, both monetary and sentimental. but a $10 bill, i wouldn't feel too guilty of taking, we talked about this in my Theology class Friday (if you find a $100 bill, do you return it? what about a $50 bill, etc...):)
 
I would honestly keep it. Why? Because no matter who you turn it into its either gonna be sold or kept for themselves. No Point. That Lost and Found crap is only good if the person comes for it within the day, if not into someone pocket it goes.
 
This thread raises an interesting question.

My first reaction would be to try to find an email/address/number on the phone that would allow me to connect it with its owner. If it's locked, you shouldn't have to wait very long for the owner or someone who knows the owner to call.

Failing these, my second thought was to return it to an AT&T store. This is the interesting question, will AT&T contact the owner? It would be a simple matter for them to find the owner's name, address, and non-mobile number. Any AT&T employees here? I'd feel much better leaving it with someone who had the power to return it than the airport lost and found.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

If you don't trust AT&T or the lost and found, take it to an Apple store. I've no trust in lost and found, because I've seen poeple stealing the lost items before.
 
coupla years back I saw the spanking new latest (then) nokia sitting prettily on the seat of a honda bike. It was parked along the sidewalk of a rather obscure alley. I took the phone and held it with me (was heading somewhere) knowing that the owner will be calling frantically. true to my suspicions he did call back (who wldnt), and I offered to meet him at a rendezvous mid point of us. Took a cab down (he was in a rush), handed it to him, and he muttered a "thanks" and poof. He didnt even offer to pay the cab fare, which I had to retake to my original destination.

From now on, Im still going to hold on the phones and return it, but if there are costs incurred, Im going to state upfront I wont be liable for bearing it in the process of returning it. Kindness should never be a prelude to charity exploitation.
 
jarjarblinks said:
coupla years back I saw the spanking new latest (then) nokia sitting prettily on the seat of a honda bike. It was parked along the sidewalk of a rather obscure alley. I took the phone and held it with me (was heading somewhere) knowing that the owner will be calling frantically. true to my suspicions he did call back (who wldnt), and I offered to meet him at a rendezvous mid point of us. Took a cab down (he was in a rush), handed it to him, and he muttered a "thanks" and poof. He didnt even offer to pay the cab fare, which I had to retake to my original destination.

From now on, Im still going to hold on the phones and return it, but if there are costs incurred, Im going to state upfront I wont be liable for bearing it in the process of returning it. Kindness should never be a prelude to charity exploitation.
Click to expand...

That was nice of you. It's a shame he didn't appreciate your kindness.

I'd hold on to a cell phone I found as well. I frankly do not trust the staff at any establishment to keep their hands off lost and found goods and I think it would be less likely to get back to the original owner that way. I think almost everyone who loses a cell phone will try to call it once they realize it's gone, and I'd answer and make arrangements to get it back to them, but at my convenience unless they're making up for my trouble.
 
i try to live an honest life, and i prefer to work for what i have, i enjoy it more that way, knowing this spanking new product is mine and i bought it with my own cash, so if i did find an iphone, i would try to find a contact number, or if the owner called, i would give him a meeting point near my house where he/she could come and pick it up. i wouldn't ask for a reward since returning a lost item should be done for ones own morals and principles, not just because a reward is expected.

in other words, i would return it for myself, not for the owner, if that makes any sense.

what goes around comes around. work hard, be honest, and i believe we will be rewarded in due time.
 
I found a sealed iPhone in the FIS area of the Philadelphia airport earlier this year. I could either leave it there or take it and declare it mine through customs. If I left it, the owner wouldn't be able to go back and get it. If I took it, I wouldn't be able to turn it into the airport's lost and found due to some technicality of foreign goods brought into the country. I ended up taking it and the customs agent seemed to agree that it was the wise move.

I ended posted stuff on the internet including this forum and craigslist, but nobody ever contacted me. So I still have a sealed iPhone just waiting for someone to contact me with the serial number. I decided to wait for exactly one year, then I'll sell it off.
 
dukebound85 said:
oh if i found cash, its mine. i once found 60 bucks on a parking garage floor in vegas and i kept it. now if i saw a person drop any amount of cash, id pick it up and hand it back in a heartbeat

now i dont know what limit it would take for me to turn the cash in though lol
Click to expand...


When I was a kid (prob. about 11ish), a long story, but I found about $10,000.00

I handed it in to the police before I had even told my folks, (boy my Dad was mad).

And you know what!! When it was returned to the rightful owners they showed their gratitude by sending me a $20.00 gift voucher!

I learnt a lot that day.
 
wackymacky said:
When I was a kid (prob. about 11ish), a long story, but I found about $10,000.00

I handed it in to the police before I had even told my folks, (boy my Dad was mad).

And you know what!! When it was returned to the rightful owners they showed their gratitude by sending me a $20.00 gift voucher!

I learnt a lot that day.
Click to expand...

$10 000 cash? Probably drug money. You might be responsible for funding criminal activity. :p :D

Seriously, though, with that amount of money, turning it in is the only thing you can do. Little different, but a long time ago a guy I knew had a bunch of money put in his bank account by mistake (the bank deposited it in the wrong account).

Well, he spent it, and when the bank realized their error, he was in big trouble. With that much money, you know it's not yours and you can be held liable... :/
 
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