I'm glad that the story ended well for the OP. It is encouraging to see that someone found the phone and helped out.

However, my brother lost his cell a few weeks ago. He thinks he dropped it getting out of his car at a gas station. Well, the 'gentleman' who picked it up didn't call 'Home' or 'Mom'. He proceeded to call his friends, his sister-in-law, and his work associates making all kinds of colorful statements and threats. This continued until my brother realized his phone was gone and called Verizon to have it shut down. So... My advice would be to have your phone password protected and have the welcome message include an alternate phone number "ICE".

Unfortunately, the whole password thing is a real drag when you want to quickly call someone, but explaining to your boss that the lewd message on her cell phone wasn't from you or your jokster friends isn't a ton of fun either.