I am with the "Bad Karma" people, return the phone no matter how cool of a phone it is.

Making a conscious effort to possess another person's belongings is theft. Theft is damaging to other people. This is not an arbitrary social rule. I don't know of any culture that condones theft.
Keeping a lost cellphone makes you superior? You're kidding, right? It takes much more strength to return something you found than to keep it. Most people would not waste their time returning something, even if they didn't want it for themselves. We live in a culture that is increasing in apathy and selfishness every day. Someone who can rise above that and do something nice for a change is clearly superior.
Yes, I would.

It amazes me when people try to justify theft. If you're stealing something, at least have the guts to admit that is what you are doing.

well, this morning...i looked through the phone book and there were no people in there(i guess cause its new) so i couldn't call anybody....so i took the phone the the place i found it and left it at the store with the manager...he told me that at the time no one had tried to claim the phone but he also said he will have to give it a couple of weeks before i can keep it....so while most of you were flaming me...i had been taking steps towards returning it..

*tsk tsk*

I commend you then.

No one here was flaming anyone. We were just trying to understand what you were thinking. From your earlier posts it sounded like you were being ignorant. But since you took steps towards returning it, you did the right thing.

I'm glad to hear it, Mike. It's always better to do the right thing - even if it hurts on the inside.

WTG :thumbsup:

I have already done so. Sure I could have just as easily taken the 200 or so out of it, and said i found it like that, but I'd be pissed if that happened to me, so I returned it as I found it. And obviously I had to look in it, as I was searching for a driver's license so I would know how to return it.

I was lots younger then and wanted a hefty award for it, but now I'm glad I returned it and didn't take any money.

MY "superiority" shows that I'm above taking shit that I know would piss me off if I were in their shoes, thank you very much.

Yeah man you gotta give it back or you will have bad joo joo.....

don't listen to all that good advice dude.
sell that puppy on, quick.
and make sure you don't know the guy you sell it too.

easy money. esp if its new.


lol

no, don't listen to me. give it back, and demand a reward...

the dark side is strong in this one. :-)

SMS me, and I shall become more powerful that you can possibly imagine :D

Glad to hear you're doing the right thing. In the long run, you'll be glad you did. :)

yeah, see, the first part was a joke about nietzsche and his ubermenschen, see i misapplied philosophical theory to a situation where it's clearly not intended. justifying petty theft is clearly not in the intent of nietzschean philosophy. funny... i should be a comedian. or not. sorry, i'll try and keep a lid on my rapacious wit.
but seriuosly, people who return wallets are better people than me and i salute you. i'm far too lost in the mire of social apathy. in all honesty, i wouldn't return a wallet. perhaps, i don't like my fellow human nearly enough. that said, i wouldn't necessarily take any money from it. i'd most likely just leave it and let someone else struggle with the moral dilemma. i'm not going to attempt to justify my actions because i don't really think that they are morally justifiable, but it's what i'd do in all honesty.

It may not be the most popular response but at least you are honest and IMHO leaving it for someone else to deal with is way better then theft ;)


As for you mike, nice work. Now just keep your fingers crossed and maybe no one will claim it :)

I'm also amused that everyone here chose the high road for someone else. Frankly I'd probably return the phone but mostly because cells are such shit these days, and I'm already under contract.

People, for some curious reason, are not usually that grateful when they get shit back. I've seen very few exceptions to this in my personal observations.

Eh, sorry you lost your $300 man, that definitely more than covered for the cost of the phone.

I am wondering why no one sees the phone as a way for the man to ingeniously lower his losses a little from the universe, or karmically, or whatever. You may consider that he's lost something which hasn't returned threefold, and kept something that isn't worth 1/4 of what he lost. It is a personal possession though.

Eh, I'm kind of just chuckling about it. But I am in some way pleased that you decided to look for the former owners.

You had to ask???

Maybe I'm too empathetic. I try to believe that anything I found was a prized item of its owner. I also try to believe that they are very poor and could barely afford it as it was. It makes it very difficult to keep something that isn't yours when you've been in that situation. You know that sinking feeling you get when you lose something of importance? I don't want to be the kind of person that causes that sinking feeling in others.

Contact your local Sheriff's department or YWCA and ask if they want them. Some will take them and give them to domestic violence victims to use in an emergency. Even the oldest, fattest phone can be used to call 911. (and if they are worth anything, you can claim it as a charitable donation)

/steps off his soapbox

Alas, i would give it back

First off because i would know i should, but also you will get FUC*ED by the phone companies if you take one of their plans but dont buy their phone along with it... thats just the way they roll

i found a cellphone on the beach, there was only one number i called it left a message, it rang later one, we agreed to wait for her to come back and pick it up, meantime it rang again so i answered it just in case it was her again, its her boyfriend, he's 'all who is this', i explained we found the phone and were waiting for her to turn up, he starts calling me an ahole etc going off about how he pays for it, i'm telling him, i;m just waiting with some friends to return it, he verbally abuses us some more.

I told him if he paid for it, then i can just walk off , drop it in a garbage can and he'll never know who i am, its his choice. his neanderthal brain starts to kick in as he realises this, We waited, she turned up, i told her about it, she said yeah hes an idiot, and off she went.

Pretty wierd all in all, either way even though the guy was like that, i had no problems returning it, she didnt even say thanks, but i don't care, and i'd be happy to do it again.

All modern cellphones are traceable, you can't turn it off easily, they track in different ways, even a phone with a sim, they all have serial numbers that the network can see in order to function, if its a CDMA its an ESN if its a SIM based its an IMEI.

if its reported stolen or missing and you try to get service on it , they may tag you, and its possible they'll report it to the cops, since they'd probably be in trouble if they knew about it and did nothing, also they might be concerned its cloned.

Regardless, the original carrier knows the ESN. If the phone is reported as lost or stolen, and you register the phone with a carrier, you're busted.

The carrier can cross reference the phone to the owner using the ESN or equivalent. I'd just drop it by the nearest cellular store that handles the brand.

Although the SIM does correlate the end user with the service, the phone STILL has an electronic serial number that is registered with provider (at least in the US).

I used to bartend, and I cannot count how many times I returned wallets full of money, credit cards, cell phones, and other people's belongings. It makes me feel good to give the person that feeling of relief and gratitude, /shrug.

Thanks Ashton for sharing that story. It's cool that you got your ring back but doubly cool how you rewarded the person who found it. :)

it is theft of mislaid property........


but the odds of them actually reporting it lost/stolen and have there serial number is low.....

I did a couple of weeks ago.

The best way I can make the world a better place is by not being a shithead myself. The fact the world is so far from being a nice place is evidence that too few people realise this.

I see that you've already started to return it, but here's my two cents anyway...

The phone does indeed have a unique ID that would necessarily have to be deactivated before you should use it. Whoever lost it will probably do this to keep from incuring illegitamte charges from a theif, but then they might also leave it subscribed in hopes of getting it returned. If you want to keep it for use, you need to get it resubscribed with a legit subscription in your name.

Most likely they won't be using the GPS feature to locate you... oh, and even if you disable that feature, it can still be located. They can use a technique called triangulation to find your aproximate whereabouts.

If you never find the phone's owner, and you decide to keep it, I would suggest selling it. The cash would probably be more valuable than the reactivations and whatnot.

By the way, what kind is it? Make and model? If you may be able to get the backdoor codes and reconfigure it yourself... like if you've already got a phone, you could clone the NAM and make a seemless upgrade.

I lost my wallet with $300 in it once. It was returned to me by a stranger who delivered it to my door (I didn't even know it was missing). He wouldn't take a reward either, but I did eventually talk him into letting me buy him a coffee and a ride home. It was in the middle of the winter and he walked.


And Mike, congrats for returning it. However, you were flamed for your later comments about keeping the phone. And I quote:

So I'm not going to feel bad about any previous comment I made.