BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?

Subject: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Marion
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 02:47 PM

Hi gang. I've just found a cell phone and would like to return it to its owner. I am not learned in the ways of modern technology. Is there a way I can track down the owner with the phone itself (other than waiting for them to call)?

I do have the phone's number - it was written on the phone - and it says Bell Canada. Do you think if I turned the phone in to Bell, could I trust them to look up and contact the owner, or would it just go in some lost and found?

Am I correct in assuming that cell phone users can't check their voicemail remotely?

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 02:50 PM

See if there's a home-phone listing in the phone's directory. Many people still maintain both.


A

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 02:58 PM

The time I found one, I took it to the police station. The owner phoned me up when I was walking down there. There wasn't much battery left but apparently, he did hear me say "Llandudno police station" before the thing went dead. I was just handing it over when he arrived.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:43 PM

Start calling the people in the phones memory... you'll eventually get to someone who KNOWS that the owner lost it....

Happened to us... Herself left her stupid cellphone (I hate them all) in the back of a cab one day.... the cabbie found it and while he was away ato work the next day, his wife started calling people in the memory.... We started getting calls from our chums saying that someone had found our phone, so I called it.... she took my address and dropped it off about an hour later....

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:48 PM

If you can access the contact list in the phone, it's pretty standard recommended practice that everyone should record a number to be called in case of accident or emergency. A call to that number most likely would get someone who would be able to pass a message to the owner. Various "identifiers" are used.

Also, any call using that phone to someone on the owners list who has caller ID would allow them to identify "who called." They could give the owner your number.

(Note that unless you found the charger with the phone, the batteries may die in a couple of days even without using it. Chargers may be "model specific" for many phones.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:50 PM

As manager of an apartment house I found a cel phone and its case on top of a garbage can one day. I called the police, who suggested that in all likelihood the owner had already reported it gone.

Someone - I no longer remember whether it was the police or the phone company - checked and found the listed owner based in Ohio. Most likely a tourist passig through Juneau lost the phone or had it stolen.

Since no one seemed all that interested in it I ended up giving it to a volunteer at the museum where I worked.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:51 PM

Call the Psychic Hotline.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:51 PM

Just kidding.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 03:57 PM

In the UK we are encouraged to put an ICE number in. (In case of emergency). The emergency services check for an ICE number before anything else.

Maybe you have a similar system in Canada?

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Marion
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 04:09 PM

Thanks for your responses everybody. The owner has just called me, so no further need for advice.

Cheers, Marion

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 04:29 PM

Mr put our home phone in his library, just says Home

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 05:27 PM

Erm - what is an ICE number?

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 05:31 PM

ICE.... In the real world it means Intrusion Counter Measures, but I think ZM seems to be using it to mean In Case Of Emergency....

Which would instead, be an ICOM Number

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 05:47 PM

Clinton is correct, Jane. I didn't invent the ICE thing though - the emergency services recommend it. Just put in contact details (e.g. home/Geoff etc) for who to contact in case of accident etc. At the scene of an accident or similar the emergency services check first for an ICE number on your phone.

Another thing to do is have a Message In A Bottle, which is all the information the emergency services need if they have to break into your house for any reason. Most people keep them in the fridge, for some reason, and there is a sticker to place on the outside of the fridge saying it's there. These can be picked up (for free I think) from your local Lions club, or look out for them on Lions stands at shows etc.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 05:53 PM

Actually, I found my spare phone atop a garbage can. It is [still] brand new and the only thing missing is the chip, which I will buy for myself when my current one dies.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 09:05 AM

Intrusion Counter Measures.

Wouldn't that be ICM then?

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 10:03 AM

Oops.... Ummmm.... hang on....

ICE....

Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics....

sorry... Musta been undercaffinated

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 06 - 10:23 AM

I have real problems with people going into wilderness areas with cell phones and calling out for rescue when they've sprained their ankles. There are debates that flare up every so often about the ability to go somewhere on the planet where you truly have to rely on your own skills and strength. I've been on rescues into wilderness areas, but the word arrived on foot from a member of the party or a passing hiker. The old days. For those severely injured and in need of immediate rescue, cellphones (that can get service) are a godsend. For those who hurt themselves a little bit and who don't feel like limping out or figuring out how to solve their problem, they're a crutch. And that's my complaint--when the phone is along people are less likely to be resourceful in staying out of trouble or getting out of trouble themselves.

In urban areas cities are papered with the things and they effect the way emergency responders are being trained. I took a recent CPR class in which they have dropped some of the usual old instructions to check for pulse--"the emergency responders will be there within three or four minutes, so all you have to do is keep them breathing and be sure the circulation is continuing." I had trouble dropping out big chunks of my former training because my advanced first aid training had to do with wilderness situations where you were trying to not only keep them alive but transport them out before the trained medical staff could get their hands on them. So in urban areas, the more the merrier, despite the racket they make. Emergency responders are building their presence into their training. You might be dead without one around.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Peace
Date: 18 Aug 06 - 11:50 PM

I think the question is strange. Just follow the cord.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Peace
Date: 18 Aug 06 - 11:51 PM

Now I suppose some wiseass is gonna say, "Cell phones don't HAVE cords." Like, who's gonna believe that one?

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: open mike
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 12:26 AM

oopsie--i left mine on a counter at a store.
the clerk called the last number called
(there are usually menus to find
missed calls, dialed calls, and received calls)

and got my daughter who got the phone back to me.

best to do this a.s.a.p.
while it still has power!

some programs exist to donate used phones to for
charity and also there are places to recycle old
ones.

glad you found the owner...

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:30 AM

I found a Verizon phone in church, so I used it to call Verizon - they ID's the phone and contacted the owner. The owner called me in less than an hour. I hadn't known her, but we've been friends ever since.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 04:33 AM

Surely there's a tune in here... a la 'Music for a found harmonium'?

Ringtone for a found mobile phone?

It would have to have the Nokia bibs in it....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 09:04 AM

I found one in the YMCA parking lot. I called the number for "mom" and got the father and he came and got the phone at the pool, where I was going. He kept saying, "Now who are you, again?"...confused by my calling and saying "I found this cell phone and dialed this number to see if I could find the owner..."

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:23 PM

All of you were assuming it was lost. My reaction would be that the fed-up owner tossed it. Let it lie.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:54 PM

You don't have to go to out of the way places to be out of mobile phne contact, SRS. There are places in most towns where it happens, and if you have a look at your phone while you are on a train journey there are plenty of stretches of country where there is no signal.

Sod's law would suggest that any time you break your leg is likely to be in just such a place.

Subject: RE: BS: how to find owner of a found cell phone?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:47 PM

I know a few of those service gaps in town, due to the times one of us has been on the phone and driven through and the call disconnected. BTW, I rarely talk when I drive, and if I have to use the phone I use a hands-free connection. It is still usually easier to pull over to talk.

SRS