[Closed] What should I do with a found smartphone?

Give it to the police.

I mean, [i]really?[/i]

Get it unlocked asap and check for any sexting/nude pictures on there.

Give it to the police.

I mean, really?

And I am sure they are going to do lots about it!

Get it unlocked asap and check for any sexting/nude pictures on there.

And then post them on here.

Seriously, what sort of answer did you expect to get?

What other courses of action were you considering?

does it have an SD card? If so you should first check that for any nde pics.

Then look at what operator it is on (sim card) and maybe call them with the IMEI number as they should have a record if it's a contract phone.

By locked do you mean it's been off and you turned it on? If it is just a password lock but still on i'd put it on charge in case they try and call it.

Failing that take it to police. Give your details so they can give it back to you if no one claims it (or are they not allowed to do that with phones that contain info?)

What other courses of action were you considering?

I don't know. Perhaps that is why I posted the question in the first place.

If it's the handset that has a lock and not the sim...(and this is the only way of finding out)..

- Whip the sim card into another phone (either of same network or unlocked), have a look though numbers for Family contacts, or 'work' etc..and bingo, give them a call.

I found one once. It wasn't locked so I looked in the contacts, found and phoned an obvious family member of the owner. She said it had already been reported lost so she didn't want it back. Shortly after that it was locked by the operator.

Assuming that it belonged to the network operator, I sent them an email, explaining the circumstances, asking how I should return it to them.

I suppose I expected thanks and an offer to refund my postage - I got an aggressive response that implied I'd stolen it. I decided it wasn't in my interests to give them my name and address, and I wasn't going to spend my money posting it to them if that was their attitude. I don't know where it is now.

Don't bother with police, thought I would hand one in once. Took nearly an hour to get out of the place. Best just pop in the post to network ( on sim) and write freepost in big lettters on envelope 8)

Get it unlocked asap and check for any sexting/nude pictures on there.

Then

And then post them on here.

Commit an armed robbery and make sure you leave it at the scene of the crime....

I don't know. Perhaps that is why I posted the question in the first place.

How do you get through a day?

Give it to the police.

I mean, really?

And I am sure they are going to do lots about it!

I doubt they'd get CID on to it, but if I lost something like that, I'd probably call the local police station to see if someone had handed something in.

My mother-in-law found someone's unopened pay packet (the old fashioned kind with cash in it) and she handed it in, and it got reunited with it's very grateful owned.

It does seem the obvious thing to do, to be honest.

Hand it in to the police asap, they may not do much but it's the first place you'd go to if you lost one, not some randoms house.

Unbelievable. Really, you have to ask?

If you don't give it to the police and you live in Scotland you're committing Theft by Finding. I don't know the exact law for England and Wales but I would imagine it's similar.

It's morally and legally the right thing to do and anything else, on your head be it.

nowt wrong with trying to find the rightful owner tbh if you cannot then hand in to the feds

The police use this to register lost and found phones using their imei number: http://thenmpr.com/ and any mobile phone handed in should be checked against it. If the person who reports it missing has the box or any documentation they will have the imei and can give it to the police, they stick it in the nmpr and then when you hand the phone in it matches up and they get their phone back (and vice versa if you hand it in first). It's a powerful tool. I think even if they don't have the box then their service provider will be able to tell them their imei.

So in short, hand it to the police.

(Maybe the phone has gps tracking software on it that the owner has remotely activated. They could be closing in on you now...they could be right outside your door...with baseball bats...jumping to conclusions with vengeance on their mind!)

Goddammit- it looks like there'll be no nudey pics tonight. 🙁

YGM 😉

I found a phone outside my grandparents house a few years back, this was before smartphones so was easy to get into. Just went through the phonebook and decided to ring Mum 😆 Turns out it was her teenage sons phone and she was only over the other side of town so arranged to go and drop it off on the way home.

Think it made their day that it hadn't been lost or robbed and i got given a bottle of wine for my trouble. Would like to think somebody else would do the same if i lost my phone but i wouldn't hold my breath!

WWJD?

I also once found a phone in a pub left on a seat as I sat down.
I phoned a couple of numbers from the phonebook, who got in touch with the owner- who came and met us and bought us a round of drinks!

What would you do if you lost your phone?

Drop it round the police station or drop it into the operators shop.

We were in a club late last year bouncing around (as you do) and I landed on a phone, obviously dropped by a fellow clubbiiieeerrr....
So I just had a chat with mates who spread the word around but no one claimed it.
Got home, next day took the sim out, found some contacts and called them explaining the situ, next thing I know I had met a very sexy lady who bought me a drink and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I didn't look for pics, just looked for contacts like "home","mum","work" etc.. Was simple enough.
Had I not found the contacts I'd have handed it to the police.
Thing is, I knew most of the folks in the club, so it was I different situ, had I found it outside I'd have handed it to the Polizi.