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Found a cell phone today... what should I do with it?

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This afternoon I went for a walk around town to get some exercise, and I was on my way back when I found a cell phone on the roadside. At first I stopped only briefly, long enough to get a good look at it, before continuing on my way. But about 100 feet later curiosity finally got the better of me, and I walked back and picked it up before continuing home.

It looks like it's one of these, a Motorola V180 issued by Cingular Wireless. Just a barebones model, though still better than the one I'm currently using. The LCD screen is cracked, the battery and exterior are slightly damaged, and the battery cover is missing. It doesn't power up. There's a "64k smartchip" inside.

There's a Cingular store located just down the road, and I was thinking that tomorrow I could bring it to them, and they might be able to figure out who it belongs to, by looking up the serial number or by trying to pull some data off it.

Can they do that? Should I do that? o_O
 
The owner might reward you. Call a family / friend member in his phonebook and tell them you've found it.

Or take it to some hack, get it unlocked and potentially screw up someone's IMEI number
 
Oooooookay.
rolleyes.gif


Let me ask again; I'll try to be more clear this time, maybe then I won't get as many joke responses. If I bring this phone to Cingular tomorrow, is there a chance that they'll be able to find out who it belongs to? Will that help the owner of this cell phone in any way? Or am I just opening myself up to a world of hassles?

Has anyone on GAF had a similar experience?


Oh, and sorry this isn't a thread about naked cell phone pics or prank calls to celebrities. o_O
 

Justin Bailey

------ ------
I would just drop it off at the cingular store and forget about it. Tell them you found it and if they ask for any contact info (not sure why they would) don't give them any.
 

number386

Member
Turn it in at a police station, or the cingular store. Do not make a call on the phone the po po and cingular can easily find out who you called and they will assume you stole it.
 

Jewbacca

Banned
No dont drop it off at the cingular store, they will just take chip out and use it as a loaner model, turn on the phone and call a number that would possibly be a home phone number. The phone itself has no connection whatsoever with the sim chip inside of it, you can pull the chip out and pop in another cingular chip and it will work fine.

So just call a home number or like dad or mom and explain where the phone was found and offer for them to come pick it up or mailed :)



Edit: to the response of the post above, they cant assume crap, unless your on camera or you were physically seen by like alot of people they cant finger you for anything.
 

3phemeral

Member
Yea call a number from the phone. I once lost my cell in death valley hiking in the Ubehebe crater, and a week later I got a phone call from a boy scout asking me if I had lost my cell phone. He called the first number on my recently called list and informed my friend about the situation, where she gave him my info and sent the phone to me express mail. I appreciated it a lot, maybe you should do the same. I was broke at the time, and couldn't afford a new cell, and I didn't have insurance like I do now, so I was pretty much S.O.L. until they got a hold of me.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Does nobody fucking read anymore? It doesn't power up. How the hell is he supposed to get a look at the phonebook to make a call?
 

sonicfan

Venerable Member
Of course turn it into a cingular store or police. Its of no value to you, and maybe somebody did lose it.

On a similar note, I went to use an ATM yesterday, and as I walked up to it, I could see a card moving in and out of the slot, and a message on the screen saying something like "too much time expired". It was somebody's debit card from a different bank, I can't believe somebody would just walk away from a machine like that without their card. Man, I could have emptied out somebody's bank account.

It was outside of the main branch of my bank, so I just took the card and walked inside and gave it to a teller. No questions asked. I hope they can contact its owner.
 

Jewbacca

Banned
Archaix said:
Does nobody fucking read anymore? It doesn't power up. How the hell is he supposed to get a look at the phonebook to make a call?


Its a god damn common phone you douche im sure out of the 30 million people who own a motorola (which most use the same plug to charge) he knows one person that has a similar charger.
 
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