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Found iPhone

monaarts, you are the reason why I have absolutely no faith in humanity.

You think that you are wasting your time driving down to the police station to hand in the phone? It's not a waste of time! You are making the owner's life MUCH better by doing that. If you don't see the good in that then you're a selfish bastard. If you dropped your $300 phone would you want the person who found it to just keep it because they didn't feel like driving for 15 minutes?

I can't believe that you are dumb enough to call people idiots for wanting you to take some time out of your life to help another person.
 
kevink2 said:
In theory, if you have another ATT phone you could move the SIM card to that other phone, then call a phone with caller ID, and at least you get the phone number of the phone. Or, if it has already been cancelled, you will learn that.

If not cancelled, and you have an iPhone charger, you could leave it on a couple days for someone to attempt to call it. Even the original owner. Or, if they have Mobile Me, maybe attempt to locate it.

If you have the number, and it hasn't been cancelled, a call to that number could be made and voice mail left. Maybe the owner will call for messages.

I wish there was an intermediate level of locking, where you could make calls (from specially labeled contacts), but still prevent you from getting at the data on the phone.
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Best answer and I didn't realize how easy it would be to get the phone number. You could also call that number and listen to the message and leave a message. You may get the name and at least you can leave a message that the owner could retrieve from any phone.....all without driving anywhere. And of course leave the phone on and charged. Eventually the owner will call you. :cool:
 
I think enough people here have given you enough ways to easily find out the number, leave a message for the owner, and hopefully return their iPhone. Like others have said, Karma is a bitch and it will get you in the end. So if YOU feel you have done enough to try and return the phone by all means "keep" it for yourself. You may have to pay some day but what do you care, you have a "new" iPhone. :rolleyes:
 
monaarts said:
acfusion: Thanks for that suggestion... I tried call home, call mom, call dad, call gf, call bf, and call work... the only one that worked was call home and I got a "the number you are trying to call is no longer in service, please try your call again."

Any other suggestions?


- Joe
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Try more names. Try Mom in Spanish (ie Madre, Mama). Believe me, the 3GS will call anything you throw at it using Voice Control (even with the Passcode set).

Try a few names, something will come up. If nothing works, try Work.

I know, make the iPhone dial your number and that way you have a phone number to guide yourself.
 
yeah like said above voice dial your own phone then type the phone number you get into yellowpages.com even if you get an address out of it you could always go oldschool and mail a letter. Another alternative would be to get the number then call the phone and listen to the voicemail. "Hi youve reached ______" and there you go.

If nothing else leave it alone for a few days and if no calls it keep it.
 
When I was a kid I found a windows mobile pocket PC phone, a really nice one with a keyboard... It was probably worth $400 at the time, needless to say it went right on the black market :). When I look back on it it was horrible, As an adult now, I understand the right thing to do is return it to the original owner. Have you tried ripping out the sim card and putting it in your phone?
 
monaarts said:
Wow... some of you are what is wrong with the world...
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Ohh, the irony... :rolleyes:

The fact that you are arguing so hard for your position after having asked the question I think goes to show that you know deep down what the right course of action is. You're just trying to fight it.

Stop fighting it, and do the right thing. If it's been a few weeks and you made an honest attempt to reasonably chase down the owner and nobody has come forth to claim it, then at that point I'd say it's safe to keep it. But certainly not after a mere day or two.

-- Nathan
 
This whole thread's just about integrity. If you have a sincere and kind heart, go your way out to return the phone to its rightful owner. It hurts to get your belongings lost. :(
 
It sure seems like the owner has given up hope. I would just wait it out. OP are you still there? Haven't heard from you in a while.
 
lemonademaker said:
"EVERY attempt".... ok so when is enough enough then, if he makes "EVERY attempt" as you say, then what do you propose he does? do you want him to run a $60 ad in 2 daily newspaper? is that reasonable?

if i lost my phone AND CARED ABOUT IT like I do my iPhone, I would call all over for it.... call ATT, Apple, Police, Gas Stations, Stores (call everywhere I was the day I lost it) ..... A LOT IS ON THE OWNER OF THE PHONE HERE..... like I said above maybe he doesn't care about it that much.. maybe he bought a new one already.......

he's not thinking on keeping the thing but there is "reasonability" here..... sheeeeessshhh...... HE. MIGHT. JUST. HAVE. A. NEW. IPHONE.
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Unbelivable... it doesn't belong to you. You've taken something that belongs to someone else and you're keeping it?!?! That's bad karma, dude... :(
 
OP: I've never been confrontational on a forum, but you are nothing short of a douche. Reading each of your posts I'm filled with a distinct sense of anger toward you. Why? Because you are stealing someones phone. You have made no real attempts to return it. In fact, I know you don't want to return it. Every post you've made is an attempt to get others to empathise with your situation and allow your conscience to keep it. When I find something belonging to someone else that I know will cause them considerable inconvenience not to get back, I make every possible effort to return it. The least you could do is find out the phone number, or hand it in to the police. :mad:
 
-Ryan- said:
OP: I've never been confrontational on a forum, but you are nothing short of a douche. Reading each of your posts I'm filled with a distinct sense of anger toward you. Why? Because you are stealing someones phone. You have made no real attempts to return it. In fact, I know you don't want to return it. Every post you've made is an attempt to get others to empathise with your situation and allow your conscience to keep it. When I find something belonging to someone else that I know will cause them considerable inconvenience not to get back, I make every possible effort to return it. The least you could do is find out the phone number, or hand it in to the police. :mad:
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Exactly - this guy knows what he's talking about. Maybe there's some US/UK cultural divide but over in the UK, we're obsessive about returning lost items to their original owners - the idea of keeping it just doesn't cross our mind at all! :eek:
 
I know you contacted ATT, what about contacting Apple? And I find it hard to believe ATT could not use the sim card to track who the phone belongs to.

If there is an Apple store close by, I would probably take it there, and they may be able to help out.

Would think that anyone who lost it probably would have gotten it shut off by now too.

I don't think you are a bad person, but I don't think you have ran the gambit on what you can do to help out the situation. What happens when you plug in into your computer to see what it shows when it comes up? Not sure what it would show with a passcode, but it should show info, and should be able to be tracked by ATT or Apple.
 
now i am not in any way defending the op but you cannot rightfully call them a thief...they didnt take or steal, they found it. If they go the right route here, ie police and no luck in 30 days then give it to her, shes still not a thief....she found it. I still think karma is a bitch and will bite back hard. All you tried was 1 route...att...KEEP TRYING
 
azsprty said:
now i am not in any way defending the op but you cannot rightfully call them a thief...they didnt take or steal, they found it. If they go the right route here, ie police and no luck in 30 days then give it to her, shes still not a thief....she found it. I still think karma is a bitch and will bite back hard. All you tried was 1 route...att...KEEP TRYING
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He did take the iPhone. He's taken something that doesn't belong to him.
 
Personally, what I would probably do if it were me would be to go to the ATT store where I bought my phone and hope they would take the time to figure out who it belonged to. I don't want to speculate on what I would do next since--well--I didn't find an iPhone.
 
applemax said:
He did take the iPhone. He's taken something that doesn't belong to him.
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really? He didnt take it, he FOUND it, so that shows no proof he actually took it. He tried to gas station and called at&t. I personally think his goal was to keep it or sell it from he start, so I highly doubt he even contacted att
 
azsprty said:
really? He didnt take it, he FOUND it, so that shows no proof he actually took it. He tried to gas station and called at&t. I personally think his goal was to keep it or sell it from he start, so I highly doubt he even contacted att
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Of course he took it! He found it, and took it - he didn't leave it there did he? :rolleyes:
 
You should really return the phone! My friend lost his and it was really hard for him because he missed a job interview call!
 
With how most of you sound he should of just LEFT the phone there.

He tried, but hes not going to go to the ends of the earth to find the owner. If it was that important to the original owner then she/he shouldn't of lost it in the first place.

Keep it a few days, wait to see if anyone calls, if not then you have a 3Gs. My opinion.
 
Dan73 said:
With how most of you sound he should of just LEFT the phone there.

He tried, but hes not going to go to the ends of the earth to find the owner. If it was that important to the original owner then she/he shouldn't of lost it in the first place.

Keep it a few days, wait to see if anyone calls, if not then you have a 3Gs. My opinion.
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No, you cannot just keep something like that!! :rolleyes:
 
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