Would you sell a phone you found?

SparkySpitfire

Was on an Irish marketplace website just there and there was a listing for an iPhone. Some lad found it on a bus and "can't get past the apple ID" plus he "already has an iPhone, so no need for it" and wants to sell it.

I don't think it's illegal or anything (could be, I dunno) but it did make me think "wow, what a prick". I know not everyone's so nice to bring a phone they found to a Garda station, but it did give me sort of a reality shock.

So AHers, if you found yourself in the same position as this lad, would you sell the phone?

endacl

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No.

toastedpickles

Why would you be a d*ck like that?

goz83

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No. The thought would cross my mind, but then i would put myself in the shoes of the poor guy/girl who lost the phone. I would try find the owner and if i couldn't, then i would hand it into the station.

edit:

My secretary lost the office iPhone 4s in Cork last year when visiting her boyfriend. My office is based in Dublin. A lady text me (my number is the only one on the phone) and to cut a long story short, the phone was returned to my secretary that same evening. I got the persons name and address and sent her a voucher for €200 to use at my clinic, which she used soon after. A thank you was enough for her, but anyone who finds a phone and returns it to the owner is a genuine person, deserving of a reward.

Ruu

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An iphone? I would use it to wipe my behind! No wait..that would be incredibly uncomfortable!

Hand it in of course, what kind of animal would sell it! :eek:

SparkySpitfire

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He's gotten a few offers on it too, I wouldn't give an asshole like that 1c.

Mr. Incognito

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Report it to the cops and let them bid on it??

LETHAL LADY

He's a fool for being honest in the ad, now people are going to judge him.

brokenarms

Hand it into the relevant authorities

I would keep it till the owner arrived for it.

Would not go outta my way to get it back to them.

SparkySpitfire

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Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Report it to the cops and let them bid on it??

Is what he's doing illegal though?

Sir Osis of Liver.

Found a few phones in my time.
Always called "Mam" and got the phone back to the owner.
Sometimes they grab the phone off you like you fecked it but most are grateful.
Anyone that would keep someones phone is a thief.

brokenarms

Hand it into the relevant authorities

I thought the phone could be blocked even after the sim was removed?

Is that correct?

Mr. Incognito

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SparkySpitfire wrote: »

Is what he's doing illegal though?

I don't think "finders keepers" is a legitimate defense to handling someone else's property and offering it for sale.

SparkySpitfire

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Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Found a few phones in my time.
Always called "Mam" and got the phone back to the owner.
Sometimes they grab the phone off you like you fecked it but most are grateful.
Anyone that would keep someones phone is a thief.

My auntie found an iPhone before and called "home". First, the person who answered (husband of the owner) demanded to know who she was and how the phone came to be in her possession, basically accused her of being a thief.
Then, when he told her where the owner worked, my aunt made the effort to get there and when she handed it back to the woman who owned it she also asked accusatory questions and then said, "Oh well I'm due for an upgrade anyway". Then she dismissed my aunt without a thank you. :rolleyes:

It's people like that who would make you want to keep the phone. But there's always the poor joe soap out there who is anguishing every minute their phone is gone and would be so grateful to have it returned.

SparkySpitfire

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Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I don't think "finders keepers" is a legitimate defense to handling someone else's property and offering it for sale.

So essentially, it is stolen property? Would I get laughed out of the station for saying something? Is there a Garda email for these sort of things?

LETHAL LADY

The person selling the phone doesn't sound much like a hardened criminal if they are giving away that much unnecessary detail, so I doubt the gardai would do much about it as in looking for a prosecution anyway.

SparkySpitfire

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LETHAL LADY wrote: »

The person selling the phone doesn't sound much like a hardened criminal if they are giving away that much unnecessary detail, so I doubt the gardai would do much about it as in looking for a prosecution anyway.

Yeah I didn't think so. Still, I wish the site would take down the ad or something, cos I don't think what he's doing is on. But then again, I'm not the morality police.

Pat Mustard

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I lost a phone once when I was out after a few. It had fallen out of my pocket while I was in a taxi. I rang it when I got home. The taxi driver answered. I tried to arrange some meeting to suit him, but he insisted on driving back from wherever he was to deliver the phone to me. I tried to give him money for his trouble, but he wouldn't hear of it. All of my contacts were in that phone. They weren't backed up anywhere.

I've had coats and stuff handed back to me after night out, stuff that I should never have seen again. Honest people found my property and got it to me.

I've had things stolen from me, sure, but I couldn't take someone else's phone, or anything that belonged to somebody else. Certainly not after what has been done for me.

hfallada

Several people on boards have found phones and whenever they tried to return it to the owner, they were accused of stealing it. Like who honestly robs an item and tries to return it to the owner? Irish people sometimes honestly cant appreciate a good deed

Bozo Skeleton

Answer it when it rings and tell whoever is ringing that you've found their phone. Doesn't matter if it's an iPhone or an old Nokia. I work in bars and this has happened loads of times. It's nice to be nice.

Jester252

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Try and find the owner.
I always call the Mum or home number on phones that I find. I have been lucky because everyone that I dealt with were really nice. Funnest one is when I called someone mum and the mum called back five minutes later to let her son know I had his phone.

Mr. Tom

If by "Phone" you actually mean "A small rock", then no way! I'd probably just keep it as a doorstopper or paper weight or something.

camel jockey

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hfallada wrote: »

Several people on boards have found phones and whenever they tried to return it to the owner, they were accused of stealing it. Like who honestly robs an item and tries to return it to the owner? Irish people sometimes honestly cant appreciate a good deed

This phenomenon disappoints me.

PizzamanIRL

I'd try get it back to the owner once i looked through their pics, messages and fraped them of course.

Sunnyisland

If the phone has a lock on it how would you get it back to its rightfull owner ?

myIdea

realies wrote: »

If the phone has a lock on it how would you get it back to its rightfull owner ?

If the phone was setup to include its features(this case I believe it has), once connected to iTunes a message will appear about the phone been reported lost followed by a number to ring(the owners)

Greenmachine

Poor behaviour. However here is what happend to me. Not sure if I have mentioned it on board.ie A number of month ago I found a phone on the bus on the way form where I live to city, which is about 3km from O O'Connell st. The guy got on the bus a stop after me carrying his travel pass. He got off the bus and I got a phone call almost straight away for the phone. I answered it and it was the owner. I offered to meet him near where I lived. He tried to get me to deliver to him in person. When I flat out refused to deliver it to him. He asked me to just leave it in a shop in O'Connell St, really casually. So I mentioned a shop and left his phone there. I almost hope he didn't claim it. He was so rude. Back to the OP I would have serious concerns regarding what the OP's friend is planning.

Corkbah

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

Is what he's doing illegal though?

technically yes - trying to sell the property of another person without their permission.

He admits he found the item, if the original owner reports it as stolen/lost then the seller could potentially be done for handling stolen goods (in terms of law)

the person who found the phone made no reasonable effort to find the person who lost it…and therefore is not entitled to ownership.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

realies wrote: »

If the phone has a lock on it how would you get it back to its rightfull owner ?

Wait til it rings, I suppose.

Sunnyisland

myIdea wrote: »

If the phone was setup to include its features(this case I believe it has), once connected to iTunes a message will appear about the phone been reported lost followed by a number to ring(the owners)

Thanks didn't know that.

If I did find a phone and the owner was nasty or smart about me trying to give it back, Well into the nearest bin it would go.

Sunnyisland

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Wait til it rings, I suppose.[/


:o never thought of that

camel jockey

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Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Wait til it rings, I suppose.

What if it never rings? Or the battery dies and you don't have the appropriate cable / adaptor to recharge it?

Rod Serling

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Anyone who'd sell it is scum, pure and simple.

I've never found a phone, if I did I'd ring the home number or mam, whatever and try get it back to them asap. I know if I lost my phone I'd be sick and want it back the same way.

I know someone who found an iPhone and threw it in a canal because "I couldn't use it so what use was it to me"

fasttalkerchat

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

My auntie found an iPhone before and called "home". First, the person who answered (husband of the owner) demanded to know who she was and how the phone came to be in her possession, basically accused her of being a thief.
Then, when he told her where the owner worked, my aunt made the effort to get there and when she handed it back to the woman who owned it she also asked accusatory questions and then said, "Oh well I'm due for an upgrade anyway". Then she dismissed my aunt without a thank you. :rolleyes:

It's people like that who would make you want to keep the phone. But there's always the poor joe soap out there who is anguishing every minute their phone is gone and would be so grateful to have it returned.

Should have smashed it in front of her.

SparkySpitfire

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fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Should have smashed it in front of her.

I would've.

SparkySpitfire

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Corkbah wrote: »

technically yes - trying to sell the property of another person without their permission.

He admits he found the item, if the original owner reports it as stolen/lost then the seller could potentially be done for handling stolen goods (in terms of law)

the person who found the phone made no reasonable effort to find the person who lost it…and therefore is not entitled to ownership.

Well I did report the ad on the website, and as of this morning it's been withdrawn, so I dunno if that had anything to do with me or not!

Greenmachine wrote: »

I almost hope he didn't claim it. He was so rude. Back to the OP I would have serious concerns regarding what the OP's friend is planning.

Some people are just arseholes, that kind of attitude sickens me tbh. Not my friend thank god!

Koptain Liverpool

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SparkySpitfire wrote: »

My auntie found an iPhone before and called "home". First, the person who answered (husband of the owner) demanded to know who she was and how the phone came to be in her possession, basically accused her of being a thief.
Then, when he told her where the owner worked, my aunt made the effort to get there and when she handed it back to the woman who owned it she also asked accusatory questions and then said, "Oh well I'm due for an upgrade anyway". Then she dismissed my aunt without a thank you. :rolleyes:

It's people like that who would make you want to keep the phone. But there's always the poor joe soap out there who is anguishing every minute their phone is gone and would be so grateful to have it returned.

This is what I don't get.

While I would make the effort to get the phone back to the owner you must joking if you think I'd be going to find them. I'd leave my details with whoever I get in touch with and then its up to the person to come and meet me.

And like others have said - if I encountered any sort of bad attitude when trying to return a phone I wouldn't hesitate in throwing it into the liffey.

Canis Lupus

Found an iphone in the shop a couple of weeks ago. Tried to see if there were any dirty pics of the owner find a home phone number to call on it but it was locked so handed it into the customer services desk.

honeybear

No

lertsnim

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

Was on an Irish marketplace website just there and there was a listing for an iPhone. Some lad found it on a bus and "can't get past the apple ID" plus he "already has an iPhone, so no need for it" and wants to sell it.

Dickhead thing to do.

anncoates

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Hopefully somebody who lost an iPhone meets him under the pretext of buying it and batters him.

Lia_lia

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I've found about 6 or 7 phones (mostly iPhones actually!) in the past few years. Worked in a bar and customers were always losing them. Found a few on nights out also. Anyway, didn't keep any of them, always found ways of getting them back to the owner.

What does my head in is almost every time I returned a phone to someone they barely even said thank you!

Grayson

hfallada wrote: »

Several people on boards have found phones and whenever they tried to return it to the owner, they were accused of stealing it. Like who honestly robs an item and tries to return it to the owner? Irish people sometimes honestly cant appreciate a good deed

I was reading the surreal Ireland thread yesterday and asked a Spanish co-worker what he thought was weird about Ireland. He said we were all too nice. We do random nice things for other people and we're polite. We don't jump queues and except for the junkies on O'Connell street we don't shout abuse at each other.
I would have normally agreed with you, but maybe those grumpy people who think the good Samaritan is a thief are actually the rare exception.

The Diabolical Monocle

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Im fortunate enough not to be broke*, I have the money for such a pointless toy if I want one, so why not hand it in.

The displeasure at my own behavior and drop in self respect would outweigh the benefits of keeping it.







*(just about)

Bog Standard User

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SparkySpitfire wrote: »

Was on an Irish marketplace website just there and there was a listing for an iPhone. Some lad found it on a bus and "can't get past the apple ID" plus he "already has an iPhone, so no need for it" and wants to sell it.

I don't think it's illegal or anything (could be, I dunno) but it did make me think "wow, what a prick". I know not everyone's so nice to bring a phone they found to a Garda station, but it did give me sort of a reality shock.

So AHers, if you found yourself in the same position as this lad, would you sell the phone?

it is illegal to sell stolen/lost items.

its not yours to sell. you could try returning it to the owner... you have the apple id so send them an email.

bigron2109

No i don't think i would , as the money would probably bring me back luck.

SparkySpitfire

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Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

This is what I don't get.

While I would make the effort to get the phone back to the owner you must joking if you think I'd be going to find them. I'd leave my details with whoever I get in touch with and then its up to the person to come and meet me.

And like others have said - if I encountered any sort of bad attitude when trying to return a phone I wouldn't hesitate in throwing it into the liffey.

Well yeah I don't think I'd go to such lengths either. Once they've been notified the onus is on the owner to collect it I'd think!

It's really bizarre how badly people act to getting phones returned to them! My iPhone was robbed a month after I got it from work and the little scumbag sold it on for 20 quid I'd have been fcucking delighted if anyone had managed to retrieve my phone. They would have my gratitude and a bottle of wine at the least!!

These phones cost hundreds of euro and people act like they couldn't care less if you return them, or worse, that you were going to rob it.

To all the phone finders out there, if I ever lose a phone of mine you will have SO much gratitude, keep up the good work!