How to Return a Lost iPhone, or How I found the owner of a smashed iPhone.

I was driving home today day, and I saw something shiny in the road. I drove past it but something said to me "That is an iPhone."  My cousin had recently had her lost phone returned to her by a stranger.  She had lost it along with her drivers license, and the kind guy had called all the Dances in the phone book in the city listed on her license.  I figured karma was calling my name, so I turned around and sure enough it was a lost iPhone. The screen was pretty much shattered, just like my cousins phone had been.  Unfortunately I didn't have a drivers license to get a name from. 

I pressed the power button and the screen lit up, blank white.  I figured that was pretty much a miracle.  I know it would be on the slide to unlock screen so I tried to gently slide my finger across the shattered glass to unlock it without slicing my finger open.  No luck.  I then tried to hold down the home button to get voice control.  I figured I could tell it to "Call Home" or something, but no luck.  Maybe she didn't have it activated. 

Next step, was I took the iPhone home and plugged it into my Mac.  Amazingly enough it made the sync noise and iTunes popped up with "Lindy's iPhone" in the sidebar.  I could only see the music she had on her phone from iTunes but I knew that if I could sync it to the computer I could get the some contact info.  However, I didn't want to override all my info on my Mac with her's.  

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I quickly made a new user on my computer, logged in, and synced the phone up.  I was worried she wouldn't have, or I wouldn't be able to get the contact info so while it was syncing I opened up iPhoto.  I figured I could use the geolocation of photos to find a "home base".  No such luck, she didn't have her iPhone recording photo locations. 

Luckily the addresses book synced without problems and she had a Mom and a Dad contact so I called her Dad and said, "This is a random call, but do you have a daughter named Lindy? I have her phone." 

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 Turns out she lived a block from where I found the phone.  I drove over there, she wasn't there, so I left the phone in her porch mailbox with a note.  

And that I how you return a lost iPhone when the screen is smashed.  

One thought on “How to Return a Lost iPhone, or How I found the owner of a smashed iPhone.

  1. Unless it still functions using iTunes, you can get contact information there or get the contacts and ask them one by one till if someone confirms they know the owners of the lost iPhone. You can also make publication regarding lost and found device, just ask the owner to present proof of ownership like receipt with serial number or IMEI number on it.Jason<a href="http://www.kekacase.com/design-features&quot; rel="dofollow">designer ipad case</a>

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