#LostPhoneTO Follow Up

So after finding an iPhone I managed to track down the rightful owner with a dash of detective work & a splash of social media.  Behind the protective case was a business card with an email address that wouldn't respond to a regular Joe Public message.

After including the company from the business card they responded inquiring further.  I'd also scribbled in a lost property form on their general website in a bit of role reversal asking them if THEY had lost anything.  This form eventually achieve the same result but social media was at hand & faster.

I'm now in contact with the owner waiting for the next step.  All this from following a few clues.

#LostPhoneTO

The streets of Toronto are paved with smart phones...well when I looked down on the street while cycling home they were.  Looking back up at me was a shiny iPhone, scooping up the little lost techno-hobo I took it home and fed it some juice to see if I could play Friends Reunited with the device.  

My private magpie eyes went to work following a few clues.  When I pulled off the green case I found a business card with just an email address on.  This bounced back but I tweeted the company as well as a putting out a general lost & found to my followers in 140 characters.

Three people retweeted which could potentially have reached 4467 added to my own 850ish.  I also got a little advice to boot.

When the phone switched on the keypad was locked in French, though I could see the wall paper which was set.  Would this image jog anyone's memory?

At a loss I thought maybe someone might call, bypassing the locked screen.  I next had the idea to plug it in to see if anything would happen.  Sure enough iTunes booted & gave me the name of the person who's phone it was.  I went on Facebook & sent out a few messages to those who matched with the instructions to call themselves.

The last brainwave I had to was to take out the SIM card & plop it in my unlocked phone, hoping that some contact numbers might be saved on the memory.  No luck there but a call to the voicemail redirected me to customer services who thanked me & asked me to turn it over to a shop or police.

I'll probably never meet the person who the phone belongs to but I hope they get back the photos and other treasured digital macguffins we all carry around on a daily basis.  

I left a little souvenir on the phone, turns out you can still take a photo by double tapping the home button.

How much security do you have set up on your electronics?