Dunbar

I would take it to an AT&T store and have them pop the SIM card out (not easy on an iphone) and look up the owner. Once the iphone locks you are SOL if you don't know the password. I personally would be afraid if you turned it in to lost and found or airline employees that it would never makes its way back to the owner.

I take it the phone isn't giving you the option to make the "emergency call?"

holtju2

That is the black hole that never gets the actual owner in touch with the phone again.

The other year I left a cell phone to a UA plane. FA on a later flight had found it and called the number few times for letting me know and to see if I would like her to mail it back to me. Couple of days later she turned it in for the SFO UA lost and found that never replied to any of my phone calls etc.

Actually UA employees are not even suppose trying to contact the pax if they find something left behind.

nerd

You found Michael Jackson's iPhone?!?!?

cblaisd

?? Not sure what this means. A small paper clip and the sim holder pops right out.

planemechanic

OK. I will try to clear up some of the misunderstanding here.


The phone was found on an airplane that was ferried in for maintenance and was found six days after the airplane arrived. It appears, based on the dusty, dirty condition to have been on the airplane for some time, not just the last leg of the flight. Turning it in right away to the "lost & found" department is almost a guarantee that the phone will be gone forever and never be seen again or end up shipped to some lost luggage warehouse in Arkansas. My comment about "throwing it away" was a reference to the futility of sending to lost and found, sorry I did not make that clear. I am trying to find the real owner, I am the person who would send it in, it was turned in to me and I am trying to do the right thing.

So, I called AT&T after popping out the sim card, read them the number and they said the number was so old it must have been deleted out of their system already. It appears to have been lost a while back, reported, disconnected and then eventually dropped out of the system. So I guess I will stop being a nice guy and ship it to the lost and gone forever department.

Thanks for helping.

planemechanic

Yes, that is correct. The SIM holder is on top of the phone with a small paper clip sized hole next to it. Push in gently and the tray pops out.

impaler

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/

planemechanic

Sounded strange to me too. I can only assume that the SIM card was from a previous phone and that is why it is "too old", but I don't know. I agree, if I lost an iPhone I would be very happy to get it back.

cordelli

Unless you tried over and over again to get it to work and caused it to lock up, somebody else probably did. They probably figured the SIM card of the person who lost it was deactivated so they put a pay as you go or something into it.

If you have another ATT phone or an unlocked phone, you can try putting the sim card in it and seeing if they stored the phone directory on it and there is an ICE entry, though I would bet if there is, the card was not in the Iphone before, that one has probably been tossed.

SRQ Guy

I know this personally to be untrue. I once left a phone on a plane at DCA. It took them a few days, but DCA lost and found contacted me and got it back to me.

dnastudios

Could you not contact Apple and let them know that you have found the iPhone with serial number XXX? If the customer registered the product, Apple would know who the customer was.

Error 601

1. Because it would be on eBay before you left the airport?

2. "Privacy" policies mean most companies will do little to nothing to return lost/stolen hardware to its owner. Unless something was stolen from an Apple Store apple won't lift a finger.

Although sometimes things do work out, a few years ago a TSA moron chased after a guy to give him MY cell phone - guy noticed it was not his and gave it to a United gate agent and I got it back.

The ICCID number on the SIM card actually does drop out of the system almost immediately after the card is deactivated, it resides only on a blacklist of disused SIM cards within the activation system and isn't actually accessible to a CSR.

I had battle royale with Cingular a couple of years ago after they decided out of thin air to deactivate my phone, I was outside the US so I couldn't just go to a Cingular store to have the SIM replaced, it took several hours to get my SIM restored to the active list.

nmenaker

Okay, I didn't read all the info that the iphone is locked out.

So, the IMEI and ATT should be able to find the owner.

If you don't find an owner, PM me, I'm looking for another :-)

wiredboy10003

On my 1Gen iPhone, the IMEI number is in tiny letters on the back.

cruiser1972

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.