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I found an Iphone - how do I return it?!
- Thread starter jiamy
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If they have Mobile Me you might get a knock on your door. Just hang onto it and see if anyone calls it/knocks on your door.
What if the phone is unlocked and on tmobile. Giving it to someone at AT&T won't do anything. The employee there might just keep it.
If you find a $50 bill on the ground. You tell me everyone on here will take it to the cops, or dust it for finger prints to find the owner??
But the best thing would be to wait for calls to come in if the battey doesn't die
If you find a $50 bill on the ground. You tell me everyone on here will take it to the cops, or dust it for finger prints to find the owner??
But the best thing would be to wait for calls to come in if the battey doesn't die
Yes! That's a great idea! It works too, I just tried it.
If it IS a 3GS iPhone (came out last summer) and the person that lost the phone has "mom" or "dad" in there as a contact or nickname, it will work.
To the OP, when you turn it on and it asks for a passcode, press and hold the "home" button, which is the one on the front of the phone, bottom-center. Hold it until a blue screen appears that says "Voice Control" at the top. Then speak loudly and clearly "call mom" and if it dials it means there's a Mom contact. If not, try "call dad". If no such Voice Control screen pops up, it's not a 3GS.
You could try "call work" or even "call me" and it might give you other phone options for the user. Could also try "call Mike", "call Mary" and some other common names until you get a hit. Any answered call might get you someone that can ID the phone you are calling from.
Mike
Exactly.
My suggestion would be NOT to hand it into AT&T or the police station. Hold onto it, that way you know it goes back to the rightful owner.
If the person canceled their sim, put your SIM in (or someone that has a SIM card that you know that will work) and use voice control like that. Like someone suggested, try, "home/house", "mom", "dad" and a few other common names.
Brilliant. This gets my vote. Or take it to Apple. I trust the over AT&T employees
This is the best way
. I'd keep trying till I got through to someone who could tell me the owner and a way of contacting them.I found an iPod touch
Hey, I found and iPod touch the other day and asked the same thing. I agree with the voice control option that other posters mentioned. If that doesn't work, wait a couple of days for someone to call it. (be sneaky, don't give away who you are, that way if someone does call and says "hi Bob" you will at least know the owners name).
The next best thing is to call apple and give them them the phones information (on the back of the iPhone) and they may have a contact email/ number to get in touch with the owner.
Good luck!
Hey, I found and iPod touch the other day and asked the same thing. I agree with the voice control option that other posters mentioned. If that doesn't work, wait a couple of days for someone to call it. (be sneaky, don't give away who you are, that way if someone does call and says "hi Bob" you will at least know the owners name).
The next best thing is to call apple and give them them the phones information (on the back of the iPhone) and they may have a contact email/ number to get in touch with the owner.
Good luck!
This thread proves there are some people who will go to any length to get an iPhone.
You have to admire the OP's honesty, although it would be interesting to see the state of one of those saying "Finders Keepers" if their iPhone was lost.
Go on, admit it, you'd be pissed knowing someone out their is using something you worked hard for. Hypocrites.
You have to admire the OP's honesty, although it would be interesting to see the state of one of those saying "Finders Keepers" if their iPhone was lost.
Go on, admit it, you'd be pissed knowing someone out their is using something you worked hard for. Hypocrites.
Here in the UK there's a "theft by finding" criminal offence, whereby you find something and keep it without giving it back to the owner/hand it in to the Police. I don't know if there's such a thing in the US.
You could also find out the phone number of the phone by calling yourself. Just say "dial" and then your phone number to dial.
Just a word of warning: name-calling will get you banned pretty fast around here. You should edit that out of there.
if its a 3gs use the voice control and just start asking for "Mom" or "dad"
or use the emergency call feature to call yourself to get the other persons number. Then call At&t and have them look up that number over the phone to figure out who you can return it to.
or use the emergency call feature to call yourself to get the other persons number. Then call At&t and have them look up that number over the phone to figure out who you can return it to.
Forget about the owner. Give AT&T customer care the AT&T manager's name who you handed the phone to (and the IMEI number off of the SIM tray). If they ever investigate that manager, it might be on that managers employment record that they were given a phone to return (and not pocket for ebay). Call that manager and let him know you called AT&T about turning in the phone as well.
The record of your call may be impossible to find, but the manager doen't know that for sure.
you can't do emergency call to call yourself, it's an EMERGENCY CALL for a reason.
meaning, 911.
I work for an airline and we get lost iphones turned in almost daily. (Tip: don't put your phones in the seat-back pocket! You will forget it.) The phones without a passcode get returned quickly and easily, the ones with passcodes often end up collecting dust in our lost & found office. I will never understand why people put passcodes on their phones without putting some sort of contact info on the lockscreen. I assume it's people who don't know enough about the phone hoping to prevent someone from using their phone, but they're just shooting themselves in the foot. It prevents honest people from returning their device to them, and dishonest people can easily use the phone if they want to.
It's too bad Apple doesn't give us an app to put passcodes only on certain apps, like Lockdown for jailbroken phones.
It's too bad Apple doesn't give us an app to put passcodes only on certain apps, like Lockdown for jailbroken phones.
You said it. Just put your contact info on the lockscreen by editing your wallpaper. Very simple. Problem solved.
Of course you could always contact the honest citizen that found the 4G prototype. He knows exactly what to do with a lost iPhone....
Of course you could always contact the honest citizen that found the 4G prototype. He knows exactly what to do with a lost iPhone....
We have something similar in the US. Interestingly, it's based on old "common law"--the law we derived from old English precedent--and all the cases you learn in American law school on the subject take place in 1700's England.
Essentially, it's like this: in the eyes of the law, there is a difference between a "lost" item and a "mislaid" item. Mislaid items have a clue to ownership, as this iPhone does; even though it's not readily apparent, simply taking the iPhone to an AT&T store will definitely show who the true owner is.
When an item is mislaid, the finder immediately appropriating it for their own use is criminal theft.
it got returned safely to the owner
Thank you for all the people who replied and gave helpful advice. It was much appreciated.
If anyone else has the same problem... this is what I did:
The day after I found the phone I just called up vodafone and told them I'd found an Iphone. The guy on the phone asked for some code on the sim card... he found who it belonged to and I gave him my contact number and he contacted the owner and gave the owner my contact number. She contacted me and came to pick it up.
Ps. to the people who said 'finders keepers' and 'who cares..just sell it' etc... the owner was really grateful... she'd passed out on the side of the road and her iphone had fallen on to the sidewalk and the paramedics didn't notice the iphone. it wasn't her fault that she lost it... so me stealing it wouldn't really have been very nice.
Thank you for all the people who replied and gave helpful advice. It was much appreciated.
If anyone else has the same problem... this is what I did:
The day after I found the phone I just called up vodafone and told them I'd found an Iphone. The guy on the phone asked for some code on the sim card... he found who it belonged to and I gave him my contact number and he contacted the owner and gave the owner my contact number. She contacted me and came to pick it up.
Ps. to the people who said 'finders keepers' and 'who cares..just sell it' etc... the owner was really grateful... she'd passed out on the side of the road and her iphone had fallen on to the sidewalk and the paramedics didn't notice the iphone. it wasn't her fault that she lost it... so me stealing it wouldn't really have been very nice.