Found an iPhone, can't find owner - Now what?
Apr 9, 2009, 11:15 pm
#31
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Los Angeles, CA - Nearly 4 Million Actual Miles Flown
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This is a good reason why, if the phone is password protected (and it should be) that one should have a app like Close Call which allows you to save an emergency or other message in the image that is used on the password/log on page. Mine has an emergency number to call in case I'm lying there dead and they don't know who the hell I am. It hasn't had to be used yet, though. But I could see its use in a case like this.
Apr 9, 2009, 11:40 pm
#32
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oregon
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How bizarre. Every other smartphone I've had (WinMo and Blackberry) will show the owner information screen when remotely locked. I know my BB will even do a remote lock, remote wipe, or remote owner info update. You'd think AT&T could do this with the eyephone.
Feb 11, 2010, 7:37 am
#33
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1
I lost my iphone
I lost my iphone at an airport, not sure where, however I went to all the various lost and founds at the airport hoping one place or another would have it. No such luck even after trying on multiple days. I discovered that the airport has a police lost & found, then the TSA has their own lost & found, and every airport employee is supposed to know to turn these items into lost and found. I believe it's possible a random stranger picked up the phone hoping I would call the phone, since most people at airports have no clue where the lost and found even is at an airport, until they lose something. The probably assumed I would call the iphone and they'd answer and low and behold get a reward, well bad assumption since the at&t phone service is disconnected on the phone, and it was used more like you'd use an itouch. Luckily I had it passcode locked so someone shouldn't be able to access it, yet they won't be able to access any info to locate me either. So it's possible this person took the phone, may have even got on an airplane with it and then at some point just decided to abandon it, I can't fathom that someone would pick up a lost iphone to throw it in the trash so I feel like the phone is out there somewhere, it was lost on 1/15/2010 at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix if anyone finds it please contact me through this site.
Feb 11, 2010, 8:09 am
#35
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Menlo Park, CA, USA
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Posts: 6,912
that's why I use these guys on all my electronics
http://www.stuffbak.com/sb/default.aspx
they have an 80+% sucess rate, the REWARD to the FINDER seems to work
http://www.stuffbak.com/sb/default.aspx
they have an 80+% sucess rate, the REWARD to the FINDER seems to work
Feb 11, 2010, 8:44 am
#36
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2009
Programs: AAdvantage Gold
Posts: 1,615
This reently happened to me. I went to the airport to pick up a frien and while I was sitting at the terminal I found an I phone. I immediatly gave it to the TSA lost and found. Everything seemed to work. A week later while dropping my friend off I followed up to see if it had been picked up. they said no and gave it back to me. It had a red screen saying phone disabled hook to itunes.
The next morning on the way to work I stopped at the police station to give it to them and they said since it was left at the airport and tsa returned it to me there was nothing they could do. So when I got to work I called apple and could not help, I posted on craigslist and the local paper to no avail, so I called at&t customer care. Nothing. I found a website I lost my phone and filled out the info but because it asks for a serial # and this one is not registered it woulnt go through. So after work I stopped at our local at&t to see what they could do. The answer was without the phone # or billing address they could do nothing so go ahead and trash it. I asked them to check the card or run the imei nimbers but they have said it would not help.
These phones are expensive and someone has just lost alot of info. Another thing I will never own an I phone as long as it is distributed from at&t. These guys make 0 effort to help or more the less seem to care. the one thing this experience has taught me that you will remain paying for an Iphone weather it was lost or stolen forr the remaining of the contract but it will be with another phone since they wont replace it. Sorry planemechanic it seems futile, Im done with the head ache. It's tough trying to be the good guy.
The next morning on the way to work I stopped at the police station to give it to them and they said since it was left at the airport and tsa returned it to me there was nothing they could do. So when I got to work I called apple and could not help, I posted on craigslist and the local paper to no avail, so I called at&t customer care. Nothing. I found a website I lost my phone and filled out the info but because it asks for a serial # and this one is not registered it woulnt go through. So after work I stopped at our local at&t to see what they could do. The answer was without the phone # or billing address they could do nothing so go ahead and trash it. I asked them to check the card or run the imei nimbers but they have said it would not help.
These phones are expensive and someone has just lost alot of info. Another thing I will never own an I phone as long as it is distributed from at&t. These guys make 0 effort to help or more the less seem to care. the one thing this experience has taught me that you will remain paying for an Iphone weather it was lost or stolen forr the remaining of the contract but it will be with another phone since they wont replace it. Sorry planemechanic it seems futile, Im done with the head ache. It's tough trying to be the good guy.
Feb 12, 2010, 5:55 am
#39
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
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If the OP hasn't tried contacting Apple yet, I would definitely recommend pursuing that avenue. It can be stupidly difficult to contact a real human being there, but it might be worth a try. I'll help start the goose chase off: Apple's support number is 1-800-SOS-APPL (that's SoS, not S0S--don't call that!), or 1-800-767-2775. With luck, you can navigate to a person and quickly tell them you're trying to return a lost iPhone before they demand per-incident payment and cut you off. 
Feb 12, 2010, 4:40 pm
#40
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: United, American, Southwest, USAirways, Delta
Posts: 1,874
OK, and Alternate Approach...
Everyone is making it difficult for the finder - he's being stonewalled in his good-hearted attempts to return the phone to the owner. To be honest, I would have trashed it by now, given the amount of static he has received. No good deed goes unpunished, truly...
So anyway, let's try another approach. OP has found an iPhone, tried very hard to return it, and cannot. A month has gone by, and the original owner has likely moved on by now to another phone.
Can the finder use he phone somehow? I assume it's locked, and by now probably out of charge. What can OP do to get the phone running, assigned to himself, and with a calling plan from AT&T? At any point in the process will anyone realize that this phone used to be owned by someone else? Will they care?
So anyway, let's try another approach. OP has found an iPhone, tried very hard to return it, and cannot. A month has gone by, and the original owner has likely moved on by now to another phone.
Can the finder use he phone somehow? I assume it's locked, and by now probably out of charge. What can OP do to get the phone running, assigned to himself, and with a calling plan from AT&T? At any point in the process will anyone realize that this phone used to be owned by someone else? Will they care?
Feb 17, 2010, 4:48 pm
#41
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Okanagan, BC (usually YLW)
Programs: WS Platinum 18K so far this year
Posts: 418
I think AT&T should do much better than this..."so old", iPhones didn't even go on sale until summer of 2007, so it couldn't be more than 1.5 years old, they are just being lazy, plus the IMEI number is not on the SIM card, Apple should have a record as well...you are really trying to do the right thing here, perhaps you can be a bit more persistent with AT&T...lost and found will just dump it to a warehouse as you said...I certainly would have been overjoyed if something I lost were returned to me...don't give up just yet!
Other options
http://ifoundyouriphone.com/
Other options
http://ifoundyouriphone.com/