Techno Lost & Found

In the past, if you found something that someone had dropped, you'd look for a lost and found or some other place to turn it in. You could only hope that the person would think to look there and ask if someone had turned in their item. And usually, you'd never find out if the property was ever reunited with it's owner.

Today I realized how much things have changed when I found a cell phone in a parking lot. The phone was fully charged, so I figured that it had been lost that morning. First I used it to call my cell phone. With it's number now in my phone's memory, I called back and explained that the phone was lost and how I could be contacted. Unsure if the owner would think to check the phone's messages, I then looked in the phone's address book and found a phone number listed as, "home." Guessing that it was a land line, I dialed it.

I reached the owner of the cell phone, who had no idea he had lost it. We set up a nearby place to meet and I returned his property. He was very grateful. I was glad to help.

Here's a free tip if you should ever lose your cell phone and it's found by a dishonest person: Mine is set up so that when it's turned on, you have to enter an unlock code. That way if I ever lost mine, the person who found it could only make calls on it until the battery died. After that, they'd be locked out of it. Sure, they might have the exact charger and be able to keep it going forever, but with so many different types of chargers that's become less likely.