On the other hand his story teaches us that passcodes are useless to keep sensitive information private and that only strong encryption should be used for that purpose.
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Found iPhone 4 with passcode - unlock possible?
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On the other hand his story teaches us that passcodes are useless to keep sensitive information private and that only strong encryption should be used for that purpose.
If you found my phone I would be perfectly OK with me that you snoop around to try to get the phone back to me. 
I agree police station would be best. in allot of cases they take reasonable effort to get back to the owner. However if they don't claim it or it doesn't go back the owner it would be yours karma free.
I agree police station would be best. in allot of cases they take reasonable effort to get back to the owner. However if they don't claim it or it doesn't go back the owner it would be yours karma free.
Happy Ending
Okay (OP here),
So, I had to fly to San Francisco this morning, but when I got off the plane I went right to the post office and called "Darren", who had called the phone 5 times in the last week (but not since I got it). He gave me Larry's (the owner) home number, and when I called his wife answered. She was ecstatic and gave me their address. Turns out they live right down the road from me, and she thought her husband must have left it on the roof of the car and it fell off on the curve by my house. He was going to go buy a replacement tomorrow.
I put it in a priority mail envelope - they should have it by Wednesday.
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A final note - I find the responses very interesting - especially considering the times they were posted and the locations they seem to be from. The initial responses were mostly negative - mostly saying at first that it couldn't be done, and then once I did do it, that I had either broken the law or done something evil. Later (during US daylight hours), the comments became much more "civil" and didn't seem to be accusing me of trying to do something wrong.
Do I think the police (especially in my area) are smart enough to figure out how to get the phone back to its owner? Not a chance. Do I take personal responsibility for seeing the phone returned safely to its owner? Completely. Did I try to think of other ways to get the phone back to him quickly? Yes I did - and none seemed to me likely to result in the phone being returned before he just went out and bought another one. Could I have caused this guy damage by having his data in my hands? Of course, but he's my neighbor and a fellow human being who has not harmed me at all.
What I did may technically be illegal in the UK as some of you claim (and maybe even in the US), but the result is he got (or soon will get) his phone back, and because I am not trying to screw over my fellow man, not a bit of his data is compromised. My conscience is absolutely clear, and who knows, maybe he'll pay it forward one day to one of you.
Okay (OP here),
So, I had to fly to San Francisco this morning, but when I got off the plane I went right to the post office and called "Darren", who had called the phone 5 times in the last week (but not since I got it). He gave me Larry's (the owner) home number, and when I called his wife answered. She was ecstatic and gave me their address. Turns out they live right down the road from me, and she thought her husband must have left it on the roof of the car and it fell off on the curve by my house. He was going to go buy a replacement tomorrow.
I put it in a priority mail envelope - they should have it by Wednesday.
---------
A final note - I find the responses very interesting - especially considering the times they were posted and the locations they seem to be from. The initial responses were mostly negative - mostly saying at first that it couldn't be done, and then once I did do it, that I had either broken the law or done something evil. Later (during US daylight hours), the comments became much more "civil" and didn't seem to be accusing me of trying to do something wrong.
Do I think the police (especially in my area) are smart enough to figure out how to get the phone back to its owner? Not a chance. Do I take personal responsibility for seeing the phone returned safely to its owner? Completely. Did I try to think of other ways to get the phone back to him quickly? Yes I did - and none seemed to me likely to result in the phone being returned before he just went out and bought another one. Could I have caused this guy damage by having his data in my hands? Of course, but he's my neighbor and a fellow human being who has not harmed me at all.
What I did may technically be illegal in the UK as some of you claim (and maybe even in the US), but the result is he got (or soon will get) his phone back, and because I am not trying to screw over my fellow man, not a bit of his data is compromised. My conscience is absolutely clear, and who knows, maybe he'll pay it forward one day to one of you.
That is amazing! so proud u buddy, one thing I once again want to note is that there are way too many AS*holes on this forum that start to accuse the person posting, for even trying to be honest, its like considered a crime. You bast*rds that accuse people and criticize for trying, i bet you wouldn't even know what to do in a situation, and for all you know the authority you hand the phone over to doesn't even return it to the rightful owner.....if your not the one putting in the effort or can't do it better then don't hate on people who are making the effort.
Yeah LEO's are all stupid, no way they can be as smart as you and figure out how to find the owner of a phone.... they NEVER find people for any reason.
Sorry but I'm NOT a moron and know what to do in many situations in which it seems many don't as they come to forums and ask questions.
(you see I have what the layperson calls critical thinking skills, I don't need random people on a forum to tell me what to do)Sorry but I have a hard time believing people when they come and make threads with titles such as OP's. Especially when they elablorate and add so much detail. You see that's what criminals do when relaying a story (ever seen Resevoir Dogs?) adding as much detail as possible to make it believable. OP could have simply said he found a phone and would like to know his options to possibly find the owner. Details such as him giving the hobo $30 worth of cans isn't needed. YOU pass judgement on those questioning OP's story and we pass judgement on OP.... how are you better than all the As*holes you are complaining about?
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no-one said it could not be done and you definitely cannot make wide judgements on where people are from because of the times posted, you yourself posted at 9AM UK time.
the fact is no matter how good you intentions are it isn't your call to decide to take the law into your own hands and illegally hack into someone else phone/computer,
I can't actually believe that you even question if hacking is a crime in the US
you can make any excuse you want but what you did was illegal and a breach of privacy, both technically and morally.
the real split in this thread were the people who wouldn't break the law themselves and would rather let the proper trained authorities handle the situation, and those who would rather break the law and satisfy their own illegal hacking curiosities at someone else's expense.
I, if I was in your position, would have serious questions for your politicians given the fact you live in a first world country and you cannot even trust the police, it's sad times.
There's a reason why people put passcodes on their phone. It doesn't matter if you're Jesus or Mother Teresa, THEY DON'T WANT ANYONE ACCESSING THEIR PHONE! What if this was a company phone which you hacked into? You could be sued up the river dude, very STUPID!
Next time you try to play Sherlock, why don't you just take the phone to the Apple store and let them decide what the next course of action is. No one asked you to play PI. We're just asking that you go by the letter of the law.
I can just imagine parking my car in front of this guys house. "Oh, I finally got into the car but I don't see any address in the glove box. I'm just going to try and hot wire this vehicle and drive around until I find the owner."
Next time you try to play Sherlock, why don't you just take the phone to the Apple store and let them decide what the next course of action is. No one asked you to play PI. We're just asking that you go by the letter of the law.
I can just imagine parking my car in front of this guys house. "Oh, I finally got into the car but I don't see any address in the glove box. I'm just going to try and hot wire this vehicle and drive around until I find the owner."
Glad you got the phone home safely! Good on you for doing the right thing. And come on everyone else, sure everyone would consider keeping it, but if the OP was set on keeping it, they would of just done a factory restore and not even bothered here with such detailed replies.
This gives me an idea for a feature. You can set relations to people in your contacts for Siri, so it would be good if you could set one ICE contact. The idea is that you would have a way to contact this person without requiring the phone finder/emergency personnel to know the pin code. An access method such as hold down home key till a menu appears (similar to in the activation screens), and then click "ICE, press here" to call that person.
Of course the implementation would probably differ, but this would be great in emergency situations to notify a next of kin and if you lost your phone.
This gives me an idea for a feature. You can set relations to people in your contacts for Siri, so it would be good if you could set one ICE contact. The idea is that you would have a way to contact this person without requiring the phone finder/emergency personnel to know the pin code. An access method such as hold down home key till a menu appears (similar to in the activation screens), and then click "ICE, press here" to call that person.
Of course the implementation would probably differ, but this would be great in emergency situations to notify a next of kin and if you lost your phone.
If this story is in fact true then good for you for returning it. I do find it strange (like others) that if you wanted to return it to the owner you didn't just take ti to the police or even put up posters or something mentioning the lost iPhone. It may have been a simple case of curiosity or a "l want to bypass the code to see if I can" scenario, but it was still unnecessary.
Glad to hear there are people like you out there
Just saying, I think he did exactly the right thing. For those who say give it to the police, the 'trained professionals' LOL, they are experts in crime solving and crowd-control, emergency management etc. They are by no means experts in technology, except for those few working in computer crimes, and those people are never going to waste their time tracking down the owner of a lost cell phone. I do have a pin code on my iPhone, and honestly I would hope that someone would do the same thing for me and bypass it if it meant I would get my phone back (I use find my iPhone so this would hopefully never happen for me). If I had some truly confidential data on my phone I would just do a remote wipe as soon as I realised it was missing. You might ask why then have a pin if I just want someone to bypass it? Well it's simple, I don't want someone to snoop in my phone when I leave it on my desk at work, or while I'm in the washroom and my friend/date/relative is at my house. It's for that casual level of privacy (for me) and not intended to prevent someone from returning it to me if it's lost. I would do the same thing he did and if I ever lost my phone and find my iPhone didn't work right, I would hope the person who finds my phone does the same thing.
So many of you on here are way too cut-throat and too quick to pounce on someone trying to do good. Please be kind.
Just saying, I think he did exactly the right thing. For those who say give it to the police, the 'trained professionals' LOL, they are experts in crime solving and crowd-control, emergency management etc. They are by no means experts in technology, except for those few working in computer crimes, and those people are never going to waste their time tracking down the owner of a lost cell phone. I do have a pin code on my iPhone, and honestly I would hope that someone would do the same thing for me and bypass it if it meant I would get my phone back (I use find my iPhone so this would hopefully never happen for me). If I had some truly confidential data on my phone I would just do a remote wipe as soon as I realised it was missing. You might ask why then have a pin if I just want someone to bypass it? Well it's simple, I don't want someone to snoop in my phone when I leave it on my desk at work, or while I'm in the washroom and my friend/date/relative is at my house. It's for that casual level of privacy (for me) and not intended to prevent someone from returning it to me if it's lost. I would do the same thing he did and if I ever lost my phone and find my iPhone didn't work right, I would hope the person who finds my phone does the same thing.
So many of you on here are way too cut-throat and too quick to pounce on someone trying to do good. Please be kind.
If there is no passcode, then fine, looking at the contacts for the home phone number is alright. If there is a passcode, then you are breaking the law!!! There is a reason for a passcode, why can't you guys realize this? If there is information on that phone that can cause irreputable damage to the owner or the company/government agency who provided that phone, then you are liable to some serious consequences. I have 2 phones, one personal, one provided by a pharmaceutical. I would rather the finder of my company phone hit it with a baseball bat a few times rather than try to crack the passcode. I don't care who he/she is, I would be irate!
Cars have alarms, safes have combinations, houses have padlocks, lockers have locks, etc. A phone is no different. If you try to break in, you're intruding on someone's property. If you give it to the police and they screw up, it's on them, not you. Take yourself out of the equation as soon as possible!
Cars have alarms, safes have combinations, houses have padlocks, lockers have locks, etc. A phone is no different. If you try to break in, you're intruding on someone's property. If you give it to the police and they screw up, it's on them, not you. Take yourself out of the equation as soon as possible!
Just saying, I think he did exactly the right thing. For those who say give it to the police, the 'trained professionals' LOL, they are experts in crime solving and crowd-control, emergency management etc. They are by no means experts in technology, except for those few working in computer crimes, and those people are never going to waste their time tracking down the owner of a lost cell phone. I do have a pin code on my iPhone, and honestly I would hope that someone would do the same thing for me and bypass it if it meant I would get my phone back (I use find my iPhone so this would hopefully never happen for me). If I had some truly confidential data on my phone I would just do a remote wipe as soon as I realised it was missing. You might ask why then have a pin if I just want someone to bypass it? Well it's simple, I don't want someone to snoop in my phone when I leave it on my desk at work, or while I'm in the washroom and my friend/date/relative is at my house. It's for that casual level of privacy (for me) and not intended to prevent someone from returning it to me if it's lost. I would do the same thing he did and if I ever lost my phone and find my iPhone didn't work right, I would hope the person who finds my phone does the same thing.
So many of you on here are way too cut-throat and too quick to pounce on someone trying to do good. Please be kind.
LOL. I'd have lawyers waiting at his doorstep if he hacked my phone, and believe me, I would win.
You sound like J Jonah Jameson !
Good Job truthsmiles on getting it back to it's owner ...
Jailbreaking is not "against the law" at this time. Jailbreaking your own device and hacking into another person's device (and accessing private information) are two very different things.
Just a couple quick notes.
This does NOT work on iPhone 4S. Just FYI.
You can prevent things like 'Gecko' from being of any use by turning off "Simple Passcode" and using something beyond the standard 4-digit PIN code for your unlock key. Hell just going to 5 digits/numbers increases the strength enormously.
This does NOT work on iPhone 4S. Just FYI.
You can prevent things like 'Gecko' from being of any use by turning off "Simple Passcode" and using something beyond the standard 4-digit PIN code for your unlock key. Hell just going to 5 digits/numbers increases the strength enormously.
There are places that take cans by weight, depending on where you live (this is the only way I have seen it done in SoCal). 600 crushed cans doesn't take up a whole lot of space. If this lady was anything like the can collector's I have seen, she likely had a shopping cart or some sort of strolling cart. I've seen beer drinkers hoard Brute trash cans filled with crushed cans that they take in something like once a year.
The less plausible part of the story is that a person trying to make money picking up cans was willing to hand over an iPhone she just found laying there, at least IMO.
Good job
OP- Way to go on your efforts to find the phones rightful owner. As for all of the "Just turn it in to Apple or the police" responses, um yeah... sure. Been there before and almost got in trouble for having possession of stolen property so I too will pass on that one. Another time my girlfriend and I turned in a misplaced handbag to security at a casino only to have them steal the $350 cash and claim to have no knowledge of what happened. The owner of course assumed it was us who stole it so yeah, no reward for our good deed.
I have used the Gecko toolkit myself and it was a lifesaver. All of my priceless photos were preserved thank God. There is actually a video that might help anyone else who has problems with the procedure here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9koLNAR9SY
Oh yeah, after the process completes just perform a hard reset. Not sure why they left that part out.
OP- Way to go on your efforts to find the phones rightful owner. As for all of the "Just turn it in to Apple or the police" responses, um yeah... sure. Been there before and almost got in trouble for having possession of stolen property so I too will pass on that one. Another time my girlfriend and I turned in a misplaced handbag to security at a casino only to have them steal the $350 cash and claim to have no knowledge of what happened. The owner of course assumed it was us who stole it so yeah, no reward for our good deed.
I have used the Gecko toolkit myself and it was a lifesaver. All of my priceless photos were preserved thank God. There is actually a video that might help anyone else who has problems with the procedure here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9koLNAR9SY
Oh yeah, after the process completes just perform a hard reset. Not sure why they left that part out.
I highly doubt that if this phone were taken to the police department in most cities that it would have found its way back to the rightful owner. Sure it's an expensive phone, but society hasn't yet managed to really understand the importance of others cell phones. It just would have been another item in the lost and found section. The OP did exactly what he was supposed to d, find the owner and deliver it himself. If more people took it upon themselves to go the extra mile sometimes to help others, the world would be a better place.
Considering karma is like Santa, the EasterBunny, and the tooth fairy, fake, this may not be the best advice.
Good for you to get this phone back to the owner. I have found phones in stores at least two times that I can remember and made phone calls to find the owner. One of them was to the guys wife who said he was getting lumber at Lowes. I remember seeing a guy in that aisle and walked to the front and decided to walk into the parking lot and found him loading his truck. He had no idea he left it.
As to giving to Police, Apple, etc. I have low belief that the phone would get back to the owner. These people often have other things to do and dealing with lost stuff is low on the priority list.
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For those of you that would be made that somebody broke you code, you are TOTALLY missing the point.
If somebody wanted to do that and steal tons of information, you would not be getting your phone back but would instead be dealing with identity theft. Going after this good Samaritan is stupid.
Think it through folks.
As to giving to Police, Apple, etc. I have low belief that the phone would get back to the owner. These people often have other things to do and dealing with lost stuff is low on the priority list.
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For those of you that would be made that somebody broke you code, you are TOTALLY missing the point.
If somebody wanted to do that and steal tons of information, you would not be getting your phone back but would instead be dealing with identity theft. Going after this good Samaritan is stupid.
Think it through folks.
Well true to form you received your various responses.
You will do what your morals dictate.
Their really should be some stronger encryption in the unit stopping anyone from entering the phone into dfu mode thus cutting out the first step !
You will do what your morals dictate.
Their really should be some stronger encryption in the unit stopping anyone from entering the phone into dfu mode thus cutting out the first step !
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