I ride a bike, and often find stuff along the roads. This summer I found an iPhone. Maybe whoever lost it set it down on their car and drove off, later having no idea where it might have fallen off.
I, my husband and daughter spent a few days drying it out, charging it, and trying to find the owner. The owner had it password protected and on Do Not Disturb. No info in Emergency Contacts. Couldn’t Ask Siri whose phone is this. No clues in the phone’s background. Nothing written on the case. Put a ‘found iPhone’ message on the local Facebook group for the county we live in. Waited, and waited….
Finally gave up and turned it in at the sheriff’s office. Apparently the law is that if someone finds something, the owner still owns it and is given 90 days to claim it. If they don’t, then they have abandoned their property and the finder becomes the new owner. No one claimed it in 90 days, so I went to pick it up. I could use it!
My husband, the family techie, wiped it and put a working SIM card in, and then we learned that the owner locked it using Find My iPhone on iCloud. So I can’t use it (unless they cancel that).
Think about what might happen if you lose your phone some day. Do something now to make it easy on the finder to get it back to you.
Yes! I have been very paranoid about this so I did the following on my Android phone:
On my lock screen, I have my email address listed + my 2nd phone #.
I have a phone case that can hold a couple of ID or credit cards. I slipped in an index card with my email address, 2nd phone #, plus my emergency contacts’ information (in case of an accident).
I put a sticker on the back of the phone with my email address and 2nd phone number (call if found).
We found a phone at one of our vacation properties about a year ago…but no one ever called to report they had left it. Its an iPhone and we were unable to find any identifying information. I plan to take it to the Apple Store next week, but I doubt they will provide any help tracking down the owner. So the phone will just become a brick…
I watch a fair number of crime/law enforcement shows, but all are fiction. I thinl what i really enjoy is the interaction between the regular characters. Currently binging on “New Tricks,” a British show from a decade or two ago.
I have misplaced my Android a couple of times. I have a 9 acre farm and have dropped the phone at various places. Google tracks it and their website map shows its last reported location. The last time I lost it Google said it was not responding. It had slid off the passengers seat into the map pocket on the passenger door. My Sister heard it ring and we foud it but the map still showed general location.
I also use Life360 (the free version) which also shows location.
In addition to the find my phone for android I also have a sticker (brother label) on the back of my phone, my tablet & other electronics that might get lost. It says “Text if Found” (xxx-xxx-xxxx) with my Google Voice # (Google Voice numbers are free). I have my google voice set to send text messages as emails also so I’ll get the email. You can’t put your own phone # on there if that’s the phone that got lost.
One other thing. I have a $20 bill between the phone & the phone case as emergency/stash money & if it did get lost I would think the person that finds it would remove the case & the $$ would be an incentive to return it.
Off topic, but somewhat related I put a text if found label on the back of my car key fobs too. I always see lost (and found) car keys posts on craigslist. Those fobs alone are expensive to replace.
If I lose my phone, I fundamentally don’t care, other than the $200 that my unlocked Motorola handsets cost.
The most important services I use are my password manager, and the QR codes which were used to define MFA authentication on the password manager.
I have encrypted backups of the password manager files, they are in OneDrive, Google Drive, and two USB drives at home in a really good safe.
I have an encrypted recovery kit for the password manager in OneDrive, Google Drive, and two USB drives at home in a really good safe, and in bank safe deposit box.
The QR codes are encrypted and (you guess it) are in OneDrive, Google Drive, and two USB drives at home in a really good safe, I also “shot” them on Authy, which is another cloud service. It’s sort of fun to watch the authentication codes rotate every 30 seconds on Authy and the password manager. If they don’t match… something is wrong.
If I can get into the password manager, I can get into any of my accounts. All of my files are backed-up to the clouds.
Now, the phone matters if I’m on a TRIP and it’s lost / stolen / broken. That’s a problem. I think the solution is take two devices with me… one in the hotel safe, one I walk around with. The odds of losing both aren’t that high.
While traveling, my wife and I also carry a dedicated debit card tied to a isolated checking account we reserve just for emergencies. If all else fails, and we can get to a bank, we’ll use it to get cash to get back home. So far we haven’t used it, but it provides us added assurance of a last-resort recovery plan.