i found a cell phone...
 

i found a cell phone the other day in a parking lot. i want to keep it cause it is a cool phone. so i turned it off and i am goin to wait a couple more days before i turn it back on. i am gonna wait until they cancel their service. is this bad? finders keepers right?

It's a trap! Some evil phone company executive probably dropped it there on purpose, with the evil intent of tricking a young fellow into buying a phone plan thing... Beware!

do you really need us to tell you the answer? what do your morals say?

Unlike some other lost items, its pretty easy to trace the ownership of a cell phone.

I think you should return it.

mike21, how would you feel if you had something you thought was 'cool' and lost it? Would you want someone to return it if found or would you rather they kept your item?

Check the names and numbers that are saved. Call them and find out who's phone it is and return it. Who knows, maybe there will be a reward or there will be a hot chick's number saved that you could hook up with :D

agrees with dimbulb

Keep it if you want to, you don't need us to tell you what to do. I'm sure you will do the right thing.......(keep it) ;)

listen to Kaos, he's got the right idea :)

Personally I would get more satisfaction out of the gratitude of another person when they got their cellphone back than I would from a stupid electronic toy. But that's just me.

well...iwas lookin into the phone and it has a feature that allows it to be traced (by the company and 911) so i turned the feature off...but i don't know if it can be traced if i take it to a cell phone place to get a plan with it...anyway...i lost my wallet the other day(had about 300 cash in it)...and nobody returned it.....so this is my payback.....

Yeah thats right, take it out on someone who had nothing to do with you losing your wallet.

Edit: by the way i was joking when i said to keep it

That's brilliant logic. I think I will go to the coffee shop down the street and punch the girl behind the counter in the face. You know, to get back at that asshole who cut me off in his SUV this morning!

In my humble opinion, BAD KARMA! Try to put yourself in th other person's shoes fr a minute. What if that phone belonged to a guy whose wife is about to have a baby and needs it to find about her oing into labor or even worse, what if it belongs to someone waiting for a organ donor and its their emergency phone. Or maybe its just some rich little girls cell phone that her daddy bought her and she an replace it at the drop of the hat. Anyways, be in inegrity with yourself and try to return the phone, and if you cant find the owner then think about keeping it... But, its up to you

Your payback for losing your wallet is... losing your wallet. It's your fault. If the person who found your wallet had returned it to you, think how greatful you would be. Return the phone and help improve your kharma.
BTW, I'm not really up on cell phones, but I am pretty sure they each have a unique identifier. Maybe someone else here can tell us if a missing/stolen phone can be traced.

as long as the sim card's out of it, the phone is just a dumb piece of electronics. There may be a hardware tag on it somewhere, however.

try to return it, dude... karma will always come and bite you in the ass, so it's good to stave it off as strongly as possible. you don't want to be a dung beetle in your next life, do you?

IMHO you've already made up your mind to keep the phone, despite what we are going to tell you.

I'm kind of disappointed that the situation has gone this far (disabling security, etc.). You have consciously taken steps in stealing this phone. Yes, stealing. I would have returned the phone without a second thought, and before your conscience (and I know you have one) catches up with your faulty reasoning, I suggest you undo what you have done.

If you are feeling even the slightest pangs of guilt right now, you'll be rolling in your bed tonight, at the thought of making sure someone's bad day stays bad.

I hope this didn't come off as too harsh. I've had stuff stolen from me before, and stuff lost and never returned, but I am not going to descend to their level because of it.

you're not the only one Nizzle.

Just let us know when they trace the ESN and arrest you for wirelss phone fraud. Unless you have a fake identity with its own SSN, you're going to get caught. It doesn't matter if you turn the GPS off, that can be remotely overridden and they can find you. I doubt that they'd do it, but it's possible.

BTW, what kind of phone is it?

Hey, I found this jokers wallet the other day, I want to keep it cos it had like $300 in it. Do you think I should give it back, finders keepers, right?

Not nice

Would be very very funny if the owner reported it as stolen and you got busted with it. Would serve you right to have a criminal record.

That's what I do. They have it coming anyhow.

If it's got an address book, look for 'home' or 'wife' and tell them you found the phone. I know I'd be pissed.

No police agency in this world is going to trace a lost cellphone and arrest the person who found it. It's not a legal question, it's one of not being a complete bastard.

well, it looks like you've made up your mind to keep the phone. I'm VERY VERY SORRY, that the dear members of the TFP could not help you rationalize your decision to WILFULLY TAKE SOMEONE'S PROPERTY or was that STEALING? hmmm....

Not being able to return something you found because you could not trace the owner is one thing, but DISABLING the fone's tracing capability? not trying the names in the address book? Not reporting this to the police or to a lost and found?

What makes this even more disappointing is the fact that you lost a wallet with $300 some time ago, and you know the experience of someone not returning your belongings...

AND YOU STILL DO THIS TO SOMEONE ELSE?

and have the cheek to ask us if this was OK???

Heh, this is pretty damn funny. Obviously you should return it. If you notice that nobody around you respects you for your decisions, then maybe you should look into why.

so you drive your car to work or school some morning and, without noticing, drop your keys when you get out. I come along and find the keys sitting right next to the car so I try them. What do you know they fit! Now I drive away in your car because...well..."finders keepers".

How well do you think this would go over. Its pretty obvious I would be arrested rather quickly, and I am gussing you would probably press charges. Sure a car will get more police attention then a cell phone but the principle is the same. What you are doing is theft until you have tried everything you can think of to contact the phone's owner.

You are joking right? This SHOULD have been the exact reason as to why you WOULD want to return the cell phone. Don't be a thief, karma is a bitch.

I reckon you should take it to the police and if no-one claims it, it should be yours.....

As many of the others have said, you should turn it in.

if the phone doesn't use a sim card, its not gonna work for you anyways, they blacklist stolen or lost phones. like the others said, return it, you know how it feels to have something lost, why make someone else go through that kinda pain?

karma's a bitch, if you keep it you will be locked into a 2 year contract, and you will end up losing it the 2nd week you have it and have to buy a new one.

Plus the phones are f'in cheap man, they almost give them to you. Hell I have a drawer of old ones I just cant bear to throw away cause they were so damn expensive at the time.

if you do decide to keep it, I hope karma nails your ass. I hate thieves.

Imagine if it was your phone? You lost it... wouldn't that piss you off?

No imagine if someone actually handed it in... wouldn't you be happy.

Do the right thing.... hand the fukka in.

I agree. You should at least try to locate the owner before you decide to keep the phone. Maybe it is the guy who found your lost wallet? Who knows. Besides that, you can't use the phone anyway, so it makes no sense to keep it.

i would return it.
it will make u feel good. believe me.

I bet the person has already called their phone company and reported it lost, so it's probably useless right now. If you make any phone calls on the cell phone, besides ones trying to find the owner of the phone, then I bet you'll be getting into some legal trouble. But others have already said, you're minds already made up, and you think losing your wallet justifies taking someones lost cell phone.
I doubt any of us will feel sorry when it comes back to bite ya.

return it...it'll "make the world a better place" if everyone would be honest about these kind of things. but that's entirely up to you

god, what a bunch of moralists...transcend arbitrary social rules and show your superiority, live a little... seriously though, i agree that he should return the cellphone but mostly because the risk is greater than the return. i mean, would everyone here also return wallets full of money?

Start a trend, be honest.