returning cell phones? think twice!

007tallguy

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Nova Scotia, Canada, eh.
i see numerous threads about people finding and returning lost cell phones.
something to think about before you make any attempts to return a lost phone to the owner:
i know someone who recently found a lost cellphone. this was an eyeball find, not a detecting find. anyway, he managed to get the phone working and as we all know, todays phones also have cameras built in. he looked through some of the photos that were stored on the phone and to his surprise: pics of cash, weapons and DRUGS!!
i strongly advised him not to make any attempt to contact the owner of that phone and turn it over to the authority's instead and let them deal with it! can the person (owner of the phone) be charged for having photos? maybe, maybe not, but if the owner is indeed a dealer of some sort, is he going to believe that you didn't see those pics? not likely!

IMO contacting someone like that would just be inviting trouble for yourself. let the police handle that sort of thing, they're getting paid for their services, we're not.

just my 2 cents regarding cell phones and some of the possible issues when finding them.........
 
You can't get arrested for having pics of drugs or weapons but that is good advice.You can however be arrested for having sexually explicit photos of minors.I think you should give it to the Police because it might help them start an investigation into this and take some very bad people off the street.Just tell them you wish to remain anonyomous.
 
Every cell phone I find gets stripped down and the guts wind up in an AP tank for scrap gold.

hey, why not. at least you're getting a little something in return for them.
but as for the pics on this one i mentioned, i wasn't thinking of possible legal trouble to the guy who found it, but more so of the implications if the 'dealer' thinks the finder may have seen those pics. that could be bad for business and he might want to take steps to make sure the finder doesn't say anything. to me, that's a great reason why to not try contacting the owner and let the proper people handle things.
it was something i was asked about and i gave my honest opinion about it. then it came to mind that numerous people on here find and return phones.
i don't think i'll be returning any. i just wanted to give a heads-up of what you could be getting yourself in for.
 
I did once..

Long time ago- back when cell's just started popping up- I found one on the road. I found the owner through contacts on it- I called the guy and he Was very rude to say the least. He said just leave the (maybe *#@+)thing at the marina desk (1/2 mile away) -and not even a 'thank you'.. nothing, just 'click' So if ever I find one I'll post on Lost/found on CL for 1 week- and then leave at a certain location (not at my house) and I won't cumunicate at all on phone except once on e-mail to disclose location once I'm certain they are owners by description. I,m sure their would be 95% grateful people but not chancing it. very good point on previous post- We live in a different World than what it use to be Folks. Just look at all the mass killings going on for no reason or from society failing to recognize a problem to it's potential seriousness.
 
I've never owned a cellphone, no interest in getting one, but I do like gadgets. I'll play around with them, when found, even if the contact information is on the power-on screen. Most people are thrilled to get their phones back, it's their address book, and so much more these days.

If I saw pictures, which gave the impression of criminal activity, I'd turn it over to the police. Sort of a civic responsibility to report suspicious activity, mostly forgotten these days... Basically, it's not a bad idea to turn over any phones, they are kind of expensive, and full of valuable information.

I've kept three phones over the years, all smashed and broken, laying in the street. Got one good SD card, and two batteries, three vibrating motors, tiny speakers, microphones.
 
i see numerous threads about people finding and returning lost cell phones.
something to think about before you make any attempts to return a lost phone to the owner:
i know someone who recently found a lost cellphone. this was an eyeball find, not a detecting find. anyway, he managed to get the phone working and as we all know, todays phones also have cameras built in. he looked through some of the photos that were stored on the phone and to his surprise: pics of cash, weapons and DRUGS!!
i strongly advised him not to make any attempt to contact the owner of that phone and turn it over to the authority's instead and let them deal with it! can the person (owner of the phone) be charged for having photos? maybe, maybe not, but if the owner is indeed a dealer of some sort, is he going to believe that you didn't see those pics? not likely!


IMO contacting someone like that would just be inviting trouble for yourself. let the police handle that sort of thing, they're getting paid for their services, we're not.

just my 2 cents regarding cell phones and some of the possible issues when finding them.........
Good advice.
 
I found a phone the other day it had over 1200 credit card # on the sd card from all over the world:shock:
going to give it to the police
 
I just return the phone to the provider.

I believe the last one I found was a Verizon phone and I dropped it off at one of their phone centers. They can easily find the owner and be responsible for its return.
 
Hope he didn't take a selfie before returning it...:laughing:

I found a phone once and called the number under 'MoM' and told her id leave it at a shop so no person to person.

I also got a message one on my pager (yup, I'm that old), which talked about some drugs and so I called the cops and gave them the phone number...karma works both ways...:laughing:
 
I have found and returned a couple phones. Tracking down the owners was a pain in the you know what and both people were totally ungrateful.
 
Just leave a phone where it is.:yes:

I agree, most cell phones have GPS location devices built in, some programs will also turn on the camera so they can see you with their phone, you may even get accused of stealing it. Your best bet is to just leave it where it lay. Also chances are, if it's been lost for some time that the person already has a new one.
 
Most cell phones have atleast 1/8 gram of gold in them , some even more , which can be processed as scrap to remove the gold. You do need a lot of them to be worth much but if you throw it in with other scrap from computers , etc. it all adds up. There can be even more money in gathering a collection of them and sell them on ebay for gold scrap. There is usually atleast as much gold in them as there is in a stick of RAM computer memory. I got tired of seeing all that stuff getting thrown away so I learned how to recover and process the gold. Gold being what it is Im not even worried about selling it , if I just hold on to it might be better than cash someday.
 
I always just bust em open with my scoop and take the memory card, nearest trash can gets the rest...

lol, the last one i found was either thrown or dropped from a 100+ foot high railway trestle and lets just say it didn't survive the fall to the granite rocks and water below. and the cheapskate didn't have a card in it..... or the fish ate it. i might be able to bring the rod next time and catch a 16 gig salmon! :laughing:
 
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