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

When the Nokia 8310 was the hot phone on the street (long time ago), and I wanted one badly, I found one while on the way into work. I picked it up, and took it along with me, expecting the owner to call me. He did just that, 5 minutes after I'd found it, and I agreed to meet him. I must say, he was very surprised when I turned up with his phone, thrust a £10 note into my hand, and thanked me.

Doing the right thing feels good.
 
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?
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I would first call that phone from my phone see if they leave their full name on the phone and leave a voice mail. Then go to the passenger assistnace desk and see if they would look up the flight the person was on.

Second I would look for commmon names in the contacts and call them letting that party know I found the phone.

Third I would not leave it at any lost and found.

I would send it over night to that person.

I lost my phone at the airport and that person went completely out of their way to return my phone. That person was 15 years old. I send him the money for postage and a $50 gift card to best buy.
 
I'd call some of the contacts to find out who owned it and have someone let the person know that I was leaving it at lost and found.

Glad you did the right thing :D
 
I might make some call or texts from it(to numbers on the phone) and say "hey I have this phone, your in it,so can you tell the owner he/she lost it in the Pittsburgh airport and I'm leaving it with airport lost and found"

But for sure you did the right thing
 
zap2 said:
I might make some call or texts from it(to numbers on the phone) and say "hey I have this phone, your in it,so can you tell the owner he/she lost it in the Pittsburgh airport and I'm leaving it with airport lost and found"

But for sure you did the right thing
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Call some contacts, most cell phones and home phones have caller id.
Check the email out box and send a reply to all email.

look at the text pages and text the last person and let them know you have the phone.
 
I found a lost cell phone once in a 7-Eleven. The owner of the store was a friend of mine, so I felt comfortable turning it into him.

I followed up later, and the lady who lost it came back for it, and I was told that she was very grateful. :)
 
I would turn it in or dial some of the numbers to see if they can help me locate the owner of the phone.

Last week, I forgot a small purse in a classroom and my iPhone along with other items were inside. The janitor turned it in to the nearby Student Affairs office with everything intact. I was very grateful.
 
I definitely would make an attempt to return the phone. If I couldn't find the owner, I'd sell it and give the proceeds to charity.
 
Around March this year, I was in Ny, after class (Columbia) I walked a couple of blocks (115th Street) to a nearby burrito place with two friends. I ate a burrito the size of an elephant. I forgot my backpack at the place, with my Macbook, iPhone, and papers. I was down at 42nd street (Times Square) when I came to my senses, and realized I no longer had my backpack with me :eek: Went rushing to the subway station, and then to the burrito place (the longest and fastest run of my life!! :p) and when I asked one of the waiters, they had it stored, and I gave the guy that gave it to me a $20. Boy, was I grateful after finding my stuff safe :) I must say, they opened the bag to see what was in there, but they didn't take anything, so no problem :) street
 
sergiuria said:
Around March this year, I was in Ny, after class (Columbia) I walked a couple of blocks (115th Street) to a nearby burrito place with two friends. I ate a burrito the size of an elephant. I forgot my backpack at the place, with my Macbook, iPhone, and papers. I was down at 42nd street (Times Square) when I came to my senses, and realized I no longer had my backpack with me :eek: Went rushing to the subway station, and then to the burrito place (the longest and fastest run of my life!! :p) and when I asked one of the waiters, they had it stored, and I gave the guy that gave it to me a $20. Boy, was I grateful after finding my stuff safe :) I must say, they opened the bag to see what was in there, but they didn't take anything, so no problem :) street
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Good post. Most of other ones make my bunny cry. This is why you immediately turn it into lost and found. That will be the first "person" the owner will try to contact and L&F has the resources to deliver it. It doesn't do any good if the phone is one the way home with you. Don't trust the lost and found? That's your issue. Turn it in to airport security. Don't take it home. Don't try to find the owner. Pretend it is your phone and you want it back. How many hoops do you want to jump through, including going to someone's house when they have their hand out? Chances are one or both of you is boarding an airplane to go somewhere else. Sheesh.
 
If I found an iPhone, I would definitely try to get it back to its owner. I would take it home though because I don't trust the security people (especially at the airport) and they probably wouldn't put much, if any effort into getting it back to its rightful owner. :)

2 pieces of advice:

1-If you find something valuable that has been lost, think about how you would feel if it was yours and you lost it.
2-Be careful where you put your stuff down, especially in a chaotic, crowded public area.
 
I lost my wallet, by leaving it on top of my car when pumping gas:(

Apparently it fell off the car when I pulled into traffic.

I was freaked, but a guy saw it grabbed it...tried to turn it into the gas station...they refused to take it.

When I went back frantically searching for it at the gas station..the dude actually told me no one had tried to turn a wallet in..same guy...jerk

Well, the nice person got my phone number and returned it and would not accept a reward. I was so grateful to him. Losing your wallet is a nightmare.
 
drichards said:
AT&T can locate the device, no sense in taking it home.
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they cannot track them unless the police make them. the guy at att said its not that easy to do either. mine was stolen/lost this past weekend and just got done with all the BS of getting a new one and asking these said questions. trust me it sucks....
 
I work for a large summer festival here in Seattle - we have dozens and dozens of lost cell phones turned into our lost and found - we do quite a bit of research and try very hard to locate the owner - we are able to find and return about 95% of the phones - usually just by calling numbers on the phones. I could not keep a phone that I found. I lost my PSP on a bus a couple of years ago - I didn't know where I lost it - it was just gone - it was a bus I take about once a week - the lady that found it, recognized me from taking the bus and kept it with her till the next time she saw me on the bus - I was so happy when she gave it to me, cause I was sure it was lost forever.
 
I definitely would not give it to any lost/found, security, or police. As mentioned above, you are pretty much ensuring the item is not returned to its owner. I have never been in the situation to find a phone like that, but I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to track down the owner via contacts or info on the phone.
 
I lost mine in New Orleans Thursday night, I'm not sure if I left it on a table or if it fell out of my pocket, but either way it was gone. The crappy part was that I bought a new one the next morning and had pay the 9% sales tax. I should have waited a day until I got back to Wisconsin.
 
i would not give it to the airport. i wouldnt trust them to to return it, enough goods go missing out of our bags. ive found a phone before. you just try calling the home number or a couple of the other numbers and let them arrange to get it back.
 
My wife lost her 2G iPhone in a mall in Cambridge, MA last year. She called me from a payphone in the mall to tell me what happened so I decided to call her cell phone number to see if someone would pick up. Sure enough, someone did. Turns out that someone had found the phone and turned it in to malls lost and found.

The only bad thing about this story is we were never able to thank the person who turned it in.
 
akonradi said:
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.
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My friend, people like you are role models to society. It's a shame we don't have more people like this around, not to mention even in this thread. Good for you for not selfishly keeping it.

I found this awkward looking oval-ish phone that the top rotated 90 degrees to make a T, and it looked expensive and brand new. A coworker pushed to turn it in to lost and found. No word on any owners.

I never call, I turn it in. Another coworker tried calling the contact Mom on some ragged old flip phone. The woman that got it said nothing and handed it to her little kid and walked off scolding them. If I call and someone did that, I'd stop them and preach.
 
akonradi said:
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.
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Now this is self control and honesty at its best! Great job!
 
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 ring in all the numbers in the Favorite list to tell people who know the person he/she lost his/her phone.

I would also try numbers for immediate family members like mom, dad or sister/brother.

I like to give stuff back.
 
goatsome said:
they cannot track them unless the police make them. the guy at att said its not that easy to do either. mine was stolen/lost this past weekend and just got done with all the BS of getting a new one and asking these said questions. trust me it sucks....
Click to expand...

im pretty sure they could find it, they just tell people they cant because if word got out that any time you lost a phone at&t and the police would go looking for it the world would end.
 
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