I found a locked iphone(No Sim). Can I find owner?

[FoundanIphone]

How can it be in configuration mode and locked?

Couldn't tell you. But unless I am a total idiot that is the situation. It says configure in a dozen languages, but when you swipe the bar to do it just asks for the password. The only thing it will let me do is make an emergency call.

What you do with this now is your own affair.

Sure. But it just so happens my affair is to try and find whoever lost it. I don't really care what I am legally or morally "obligated" to do. To each their own I guess.

Iv'e worked at my Apple Store for a while and this is the best step and easiest.

I just tried to call my local store. After ignoring the automated message that said they have no lost/found policy I talked to someone who suggested I call the carrier. When I said it had no SIM and mentioned the serial she just sounded sad and said they couldn't look up a phone by serial.

Obviously they aren't going to give contact info to me. That is a dozen lawsuits waiting to happen. But does apple have a policy against the store calling the customer? Did I just call when they were too busy to care?(It is like 3pm here and the store is in a busy mall) Or get unlucky and hit an apathetic rep? Is it just not something they talk about on the phone?




I'm still trying to talk to the people I know who work at apple. I know everyone hates being bothered about work through personal channels so I am trying not to be pushy about it.

 

[meechy]

I work in a semi-fast food place that is open after the bars close and caters to drunk people in a college town. A "lost" iPhone turned up. It is an iPhone 4s( A1387). It has no sim card, and is turns on to a "configure" screen that just says configure in a bunch of languages and asks for a password.

My best guess is that someone must have tried to steal it at a bar/house party(Why else would you be walking around at night with an iphone with no sim in configure mode?) And wound up either ditching it here or drunkly losing it themselves.

so my Question is: If it is in configure mode, is the owners infor already gone? I assume it must have something left since the password is still intact. I tried some of the suggestions I found online(Trying to use Siri/voice dialing) but they don't seem to work in configure mode. I also tried putting my own sim card in it, but that didn't help. My phone is a regular iphone4(a1332) if that matters. would finding a 4s sim make a difference? There are a few people at work who I could bum one off for a few minutes.

I haven't tried anything that requires a computer(we don't have iTunes at work), but I'm the manager so I suppose I could take it home if that would help.

If there are no "tech savy" ways to find the owner's contact info, are there more low-tech serial #s or anything that Apple/The carrier would keep track of? If so, does either company care enough about lost phones that they would actually help find the person if I called them? I return lost **** all the time, so I presume they wouldn't give me any info for privacy reasons. But some companies are happy to dig up the customer themselves and earn some good will... others don't really care and just say there is nothing they could do.

If that isn't an option that basically leaves craigslist/the cops. The cops around here don't care at all about lost property. They just hold it for a while and then auction it off. Giving it to them is basically admitting defeat. But I suppose it at least gets rid of any legal liability.

As far as craigslist goes, the only thing I can think of to verify ownership would be knowing the password. But I don't want a bunch of skeavy people coming into work trying to guess it. The store owner would be upset. Is there a more definite form of Identification I could demand that would prevent opertunists from trying their luck?

Any other general advice?

It's mines, thanks for finding it. PM me i'll give you my address, post it to me. I'll pay the shipping obviously.

 

[RicoRich196]

Best thing for the OP to do is to hand over the phone to the local police department then put a sign in your store that says you found a lost iPhone and have turned it into the Police Station located at ________, the original owner can then go verify it is their phone to the police and they will be more than happy to return it.


And if no one comes to claim it within 2 weeks I believe you can have it, at least that's how it works when people find things here in NYC.

 

[Mr.Barry]

Maybe

I also found an iPhone 5 with no SIM card that had apparently been wiped because when I turned it on it opened to the set-up screen. I went online and found websites that will check out the IMEI number associated with a phone. (On an iPhone 5 it's printed on the back in tiny numbers.)

The info that showed up reported that it was a Verizon phone. So I went to a Verizon store and asked them if they could find the owner with the IMEI number. They said they couldn't help me. (Wouldn't, is more like it. $$$)

To get any further into the lost/stolen phone I had to put a SIM card in it, so I used mine even though I have an AT&T iPhone 5. Now when I powered it on I saw a screen that said,
"Activate iPhone
This iPhone was lost and erased. Sign in with the Apple ID that was used to erase this iPhone."

And then this:

"Message from Owner:
Hey ladies thanks for stealing my phone
here's my number if you feel like returning it."
etc.

SO, if you're lucky the owner has put up a message like this for good Samaritans, or remorseful thieves. But you need to put a SIM card in the phone before you can access it.

Phone returned to a happy owner who can now do what he wants with his own property.

 

[Newtons Apple]

If your gonna quote me then use the whole post


And your suggestion would be to...........

Return it to an Apple store.

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Best thing for the OP to do is to hand over the phone to the local police department then put a sign in your store that says you found a lost iPhone and have turned it into the Police Station located at ________, the original owner can then go verify it is their phone to the police and they will be more than happy to return it.


And if no one comes to claim it within 2 weeks I believe you can have it, at least that's how it works when people find things here in NYC.

I do not agree. Thousands of phones are lost or stolen daily and the best chance to get it back to the owner is to turn it into an Apple store.