mergeconflict381 === [00:00:00] James: All right, Frank, before we get into today's episode, I have a little story. You ready for story time with James? Uh, [00:00:08] Frank: it depends. Is story time with James, uh, like a recurring segment? Because I only like long, continuous stories that last hours, so I want a nice long [00:00:20] James: story. This is a one off. This is a short story that ends with a mystery. And an unknown conclusion. How do you feel about that? Okay, I'm down. What do you got? Okay, so we were walking the pooch today. Just walking down the street, blah, blah, blah. And this lady out of her car says, Hey, have you seen a red case, blah, blah, blah, on the side of the road? And we're like, No. And then. She drives away and then literally 30 seconds later, we're like, Whoa, there's a red case in the middle of the road. And we pick it up. It's an iPhone red case. And then we're like, that's weird. There's no iPhone in it. I was like, she wouldn't just be looking for a case. Right. And then we're walking up the stairs and I'm like, Whoa. And I was like, that is exactly, that is exactly what she said. She didn't say iPhone and case. She said red case. So then we're walking up the stairs. Up to like the, you know, like from below street to an upper street and there's like a, a, you know, like Queen Anne, like, there's like walkways. Oh, okay. Yeah. And we're walking up, we're wearing Queen Anne, but we're walking up and I'm like, whoa, what is that? I'm like, that looks like an iPhone. Like, it's like cell phones have a distinct brick shape that are flat. Flat. Yeah. [00:01:35] Frank: Okay. Can you, can you detect an iPhone from an Android at what distance? Can you detect that? Uh, this was [00:01:41] James: about, uh, several hundred feet. And I was like, that's an iPhone 13 Pro Gold. [00:01:50] Frank: I can see the lenses from here. Okay. [00:01:52] James: I can see all three of those lenses. Gosh darn it. And it's there. So I go and I run. I'm going to go run in the middle of the street. So I go running down. This is the most destroyed iPhone I've ever seen in my entire life. The back, non existent. The MagSafe popping out. The front skeering bulge. Nothing. And I'm like, right? Perhaps run over by a car? Many a car. Many a car. So, what do you do? You take it. So I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to find this lady. Cause she's gone. We ran around for five minutes. Gone. I'm like, okay. I bring it back. So what's the first thing you do, Frank? With an iPhone that you found. Well, [00:02:33] Frank: with an iPhone The screen doesn't work. The screen doesn't work. Uh, this is tough because there probably is, uh, a lost mode that you can access from just the button, but like, is the button working? Like, is anything working? Is the battery working? Nothing. There's a serial number on it. Can you read the [00:02:52] James: serial number? No, you can't see that. The entire back of the device is gone. That's where the serial number is. There's not much you can [00:02:58] Frank: do here, man. You find that case and hopefully someone's card is in it or something. [00:03:04] James: So we had both the case because we found the case iPhone. None of those things, right? And the screen doesn't turn on. It's all liquidy underneath there. So I'm like, I'll plug it into a computer. Maybe iTunes will open up a magical catacomb. Of information. It [00:03:19] Frank: is possible. Um, I guess at that point you're not running off a battery. It's possible. The CPU can still boot up. [00:03:27] James: Okay. No, it's worth a shot. It does. It does not. No, absolutely not. So I'm like, what do I do? I can't get the serial number. I can't get anything. And then. I'll Google around what to do with the lost iPhone. And someone says, try to look up the, the, like, if you have the serial number or the IMEI number, look up the carrier. You can take it to the carrier. They can look up the persons. I'm like, Everything's on eSIM. Oh, [00:03:55] Frank: yeah. Okay. That's what I was about to ask. Did it actually have a physical SIM? Not so [00:03:59] James: common anymore, huh? Well, at this point in time, I didn't know what make and model it was. I knew it was a fancier model, so it had the three cameras. So I go over and I look at it. Oh, there's a SIM card slot. I'm like, amazing. I go find my E, my, my SIM little dongle thing that like punches it out. No SIM inside. So it's the model with the SIM card and the E SIM. I'm like, Oh no, technology, technology advanced, but fail at the same time. But Frank, what is on the inside of a SIM slot? Do you know what's inside of the. What's inside of it? You have no idea because you've never looked inside of it. What is inside of a I mean, there's [00:04:42] Frank: four contact pins. There's no number printed. Is there a number? No, there's no number printed. Why would they print a number? [00:04:51] James: There's a laser etched I M E I number. In the, in the Sim Slam? No, for the, the normal Sim, the normal Sim. [00:04:59] Frank: Okay, I'm so confused. Okay, cause, uh, I know there's a few numbers and the professionals probably know all this, but I thought the IMEI was the one that was on the Sim. No, the IMEI is the actual device. [00:05:10] James: Okay. Got it. So. [00:05:13] Frank: Good detective ing. How small, like, you can actually read it? [00:05:18] James: Whew, man, it is the smallest numbers and it's also in, in gold, shiny gold. Right. It's so [00:05:27] Frank: hard. You need the right lights. Yeah. But you have, you have a high quality iPhone, so you, you can do the zoom in and enhance trick. I believe in you. So you, you, you got [00:05:37] James: it. And then I used like AI to enhance and then like audit, you know, yeah. So. So I'm like, oh, I'm like, now we're getting somewhere. Now I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, 30 minutes deep. I did not [00:05:52] Frank: know that they printed. James, that's expensive. Why in the world would you print that number on the circuit board? Was it actually gold? Or was it copper? Or was it silkscreen? It's on the [00:06:10] James: It's on specifically the SIM slot, the thing that comes out that you put the SIM card into. It's like laser etched [00:06:20] Frank: on it. So this just must be my ignorance when it comes to the cell world. Okay, so you must get those pre registered. Wow. Did not even contemplate that. Fascinating. [00:06:31] James: Cause every iPhone devices, IMEI number and serial number are linked together. And there is an iPhone help article that says like what versions and what things are printed on what thing. And back in the day, older, older iPhones. Actually had the serial number and the IMEI number on the SIM card slot before they printed the serial number on the back of the device. I'm [00:06:58] Frank: sorry, just as a hardware manufacturing perspective, that sounds terrible. I'm sorry, Apple, you have to deal with that. That must be some kind of government regulation. [00:07:07] James: It's gotta be, right? It's terrible. [00:07:10] Frank: That must be so expensive to get that actually done. [00:07:14] James: Yeah. So, okay. So I have the IMEI. [00:07:19] Frank: Like, does Apple have a service where you can just say lost iPhone type in an IMEI? Is that [00:07:26] James: what's going to happen? Well, the beautiful part is like, like you said, like, if you have iCloud, you could put your phone in loss mode and then on the screen, it would say this iPhone is lost. Please call me blah, blah, blah. Problem is. iPhone don't turn on second thing. I can't see the screen. Right. Third thing. I can't even plug it into a thing. Right. So it doesn't even matter. And at this point, it's not like anyone's stealing your stuff because your iPhone's busted. Right. I mean. It's completely [00:07:54] Frank: destroyed. Well, no, because I, okay, so I was going to make an argument before, like, this phone sounds trashed. Obviously no one's going to make use of this, right? So yeah, you throw it in the trash. That's what you actually do. Because at this point, who cares? The only, only reason I didn't say that was because, yeah, technically there's a little memory chip on there and your little memory chip has a bunch of your data. It should be encrypted. But it technically has your data. So I know personally me, I would like to receive even the damaged phone back just so that I know my data is secure. [00:08:28] James: And that's how I was, because here's, here's good Samaritan James earlier in the week, Frank, we went on the same walk. I found an entire wallet on the ground and I rode my bicycle to return it to this person because I'm like, heaven forbid I dropped my wallet. I had my, had all my, uh, credit cards in it. I had some money in it. They had their ID, but it doesn't have your phone number. Why would your wallet have your phone number in it? You [00:08:53] Frank: know, if you ever need like a little reassurance that humanity is in general good, you can actually look up the stat for how our lost wallets handled and lost phones handled. And there is something like a 90 percent return rate with all the money intact, all credit cards intact. People get it. You know, we all make that stupid mistake of leaving our wallet somewhere. And it's funny to see that, like, 90 percent of us are actually really good people, and we just leave the money in it, leave everything alone, and just contact the person and get it back. Yeah, [00:09:29] James: because in my mind, I'm like, what if this is my wallet? What if this is my iPhone? Even in that damaged state, it's completely wrecked. I'm like, you know, I want, I want, I still want this thing back. So, okay. I'm like, okay, I have an IMEI number, not the serial number, not anything. IMEI number. Now here's something that's really fascinating, Frank. The IMEI number is linked to every single iPhone because it's laser etched and every IMEI number is registered in a global database. Did you know this? [00:10:03] Frank: That much I knew. Uh, thank goodness for that, because that's what allows us to bounce between carriers and all that stuff. So, you can just get that identification number. Um, again, I wasn't, it never occurred to me that they physically printed on there, but I did know it was a global registry. It's like Ethernet. We technically have It's just like Ethernet [00:10:25] James: addresses, yeah. And so I go down to the internet and I'm like, it's like, who is, who owns this domain name? It's like, it's this, right? But you don't get that specific information. It is the registrar, whatever. But I type in the IMEI number into the IMEI. Lookup. com website, whatever it is. Frank, a catacomb of information comes back to me. I'm not sure that's the word you're using, [00:10:54] Frank: but yeah, that's funny. Uh, that's funny. Um, I, I used to look up people's license plates just because I was curious. Like what public information is there like on a random license plate? It's surprising how much there is. Uh, so how much information is there on my little IMEI? Okay, so here's what you get. In general, your IMEI is not leaked, right? In general, it's roughly a random code, so you can't really guess someone's IMEI. So it's, it's funny the amount of information they could probably get away with putting in there. So what'd they have? [00:11:26] James: So you get, uh, model re so you get, you get the IMEI now, obviously. You get model region, Activation status, Warranty status. Warranty. Yep. [00:11:40] Frank: Capitalism. [00:11:43] James: My assumption here is that these IMEI websites are doing a whole bunch of lookups all at the same time and combining information, right? Because once they know it's an iPhone, then Apple probably has stuff too. So there's warranty status, coverage start date, estimated purchase date. Telephone technical support access repairs and service coverage. Does it have unlimited repairs for accidental damage? That one's important. Let's come back to that one. Express replacement, AppleCare eligible, registered device, replace device, loaner device, the IMEI. Two, that one's a little bit hash, but just barely the serial number. Ooh. And then you also get, if it's a carrier, if it's locked or unlocked, and if the IMEI is registered to somebody, which this is not because obviously the ESUM is. And then also, um, if find my phone is on or off. [00:12:39] Frank: This is so weird. I gotta tell you, this is so weird. Um, fine. Fine. IMI. The one thing missing here is lost phone. Like you just named all these things. There's no lost phone link [00:12:53] James: for IMEI? There's nothing. No. And in fact, because this, so the norm, the next step in this process, by the way, is if this IMEI Is registered with a carrier, Verizon, T Mobile, AT& T. You take it into the store. They're able to then know who the customer is, but Frank, this IMEI linked to the physical SIM card, where there is no physical SIM card means I do not know. What cell phone carrier this is registered to. Right. [00:13:27] Frank: So the eSIMs now, um, do they get a fresh new IEMI when they register? Okay. [00:13:36] James: Yeah. So every, [00:13:38] Frank: We're all learning how cell phones work today, everyone. [00:13:41] James: Because you can have like. You can have eSIMs registered and an X amount at a time, like normally there's like two and they each have their own IMEI. So this phone has one physical, one eSIM, and it's IMEI 2. The IMEI is also linked to the IMEI 2, but the reverse lookup doesn't show you all of the IMEI 2. The last six digits are blanked out. [00:14:07] Frank: Okay. Uh, so darn, like, okay. So you wish there was a link for, Hey, I just found this phone and you wish there was a, uh, they could tell you, I, yeah, they just can't tell you the carrier. Okay. They just can't. Yeah. If they never put a SIM in it, they never did. Yeah. [00:14:24] James: Yeah. But I can tell by the warranty status. It's up to date and they have AppleCare Plus and they have unlimited repairs for accidental damage. It's active, which means I got to get this phone back to this person because they're going to get a new phone. [00:14:43] Frank: You know what I mean? Yeah, no, no, no. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. That is so, okay. I was making fun of the fact that they showed warranty status, but I guess it really helped in this case, but that does. Still seem awkward, but fine. Great. Wonderful. Have you made any more progress? [00:15:00] James: Where are you at? Okay. So my next step is like, I now have the serial number because before the serial number was gone. And I was like, surely there's gotta be a way to link a serial number of an iPhone device, which Apple knows about. They know the IMEI as well, but they know the iPhone serial number. There's gotta be a way for me to look up stuff. And. Sure enough, there is not, um, by the way, which is good. Also good. I'm not complaining, but I was able to look, I was able to look up with the serial number now. The make and model of the phone, because you can say, is my phone coveraged and eligible for repair? And you can put that in. It's an iPhone 13 pro. So I know what it is now, but I don't know who it's registered to. I'm still, [00:15:45] Frank: okay. I'm still a little bit flabbergasted that Apple doesn't have a way for you to say, I found a phone. Can I declare it lost? That's interesting. Or did you not Google that or does it not exist? [00:15:58] James: Okay, this, this is, this is a great question. Uh, um, okay. So yes, there is. There is. Okay. Okay. So there is a way. The way that you do it is if you, let's say I find your phone, Frank. If you put your phone through iCloud in loss mode. Yeah. There is a button. There's a phone number I can call. Cause like, you know, when your phone's locked, you can still make phone calls. Um, there's a way to do it. So if you make a phone call to a specific number, that's on the screen, there's like a button that says, call the [00:16:34] Frank: lost number, please don't tell me you're going to clone an IMLI, [00:16:38] James: no. So if you call that number, it will connect with a. Insurance company that will then connect you with the person. It's like an intermediate, but this phone has no screen. I can't tell what's going on. It's impossible. It's impossible. And now I can't clone an IMEI again, because. The actual IMEI, which is the eSIM, I can't get to. Like, I'm like, I am, but there is a phone number. There is a phone number you could call. That's like, I've, there's, I found a lost phone. I'm going to call this phone number. It'll, it's like a dog tag. It'll figure it out. But no, Frank, I can't do that because I can't make a phone call [00:17:20] Frank: on this thing. And you, as a good Samaritan, can't call the number and be like, Hey, I found this other phone. I did. Discover it's serial number? No. [00:17:28] James: So what to do, Frank? I gotta, I gotta, uh, in, in a little amount of time, I got a lot of information. Okay. Can I just be quiet? By the way, nothing on this phone. This phone is like, it's pure garbage. Here's [00:17:40] Frank: what you do. You take it to an Apple store and be like, Hey, I found this phone. Deal. [00:17:45] James: That's a, that's a great, and you know, Scott Hanselman, ding, he was like, just take it to the Apple store. And I said, cool. Let me take a quick three hour drive. Let me just, three hour drive to Poland, no big deal. Yeah, yeah, [00:17:55] Frank: yeah, take to the Apple store. I'm a good, [00:18:00] James: I'm a good Samaritan, Frank, but I'm not that good of a Samaritan, okay? [00:18:05] Frank: I'll do some Google searches, but I ain't driving three hours. [00:18:09] James: I will spend eight hours researching how to get this phone back to you, but I will not drive it to an Apple store. Okay, so I have all this information, all this, all this stuff going on, right? And I'm like, okay, there's one place left to look. Not the Apple store, but what else could I do? Call Tim Apple. I'm going to call Apple. I'll just call 1 800 MY APPLE. Yeah. Call him up. I mean, call up the Apple store. Cupertino, Cupertino on the line. Hello. [00:18:42] Frank: Is it, is it 1 800 APPLE? I've never done this. I, I assume, like, Google has ruined me. I just assume no companies have phone support anymore, so, like, I just don't think about Apple. Could you have just called the local Apple store? But no, you went straight to Tim Apple. You went straight to Cupertino, California. You're like, I want the beaches, I want the waves, I want the palm trees, and I want to talk [00:19:05] James: to Tim. I went to apple. com, scrolled all the way to the bottom and it says, call us 1 800 MY APPLE. Sure. [00:19:15] Frank: It's not me apple, [00:19:17] James: but okay. My apple, my apple, my apple, me apple. I don't know. There's a hyphen in between. Uh, so I'm like. Apples, they know the information. I see the information. I'm going to call. Now, have you ever called Apple? I'm assuming not because you have no idea that you can call. No, [00:19:36] Frank: and I can't like, okay, it's going to go one of two, no, one of three ways. I have predictions. Okay. It's going to be the deepest, darkest nested phone tree anyone has ever gone down. That's option one. Option two, they're going to be like, here's Siri. Good luck. And you're going to talk to Siri, and Siri's going to try to route you somewhere. And then number three, they're going to be like, Hey, to buy an Apple product, go here. That's my, those are my three [00:20:00] James: options. So I called up 1 800 MY APPLE and, and I go, and, and, and it's, it's somewhere in between all of those different things. So the first thing that happens is like, Hey, Thank you for calling Apple. They're like, let us know what, like, let us know what you would like. I can understand. And the, and the, and the voice goes, I can understand anything that you tell me. You're like, [00:20:27] Frank: okay. Meaning of life, baby. [00:20:31] James: And I was like, I was like. I found a run over iPhone that I can't read the serial number and it's all smashed and the iPhone isn't on and I want to get it back to the person and the iPhone and I don't know how to do this iPhone. And then the, the voice comes back to like, did you happen to find an iPhone that you would like to return to the original person? I was like, yes. And then it's like, cool. You turned into [00:20:56] Frank: the robot. Okay, [00:20:57] James: good. And then it's like. Please hold while we connect you to an Apple representative. I'm like, oh, money. I'm like, it is on. I'm gonna talk to someone. And then the voice comes back and it's like, while you wait, please choose from a selection of musical scores and your preference. Choose [00:21:14] Frank: one. It's, it's U two U two. Album one you two. [00:21:18] James: Album two . It's that one that plays every time I plug my, my phone in to the, to the, to the, to the U Ss B in my car. Um, . That's awesome. So I picked Smooth Jazz. That's what I, I was just, you know, I'm, I'm actually still working. I prefer [00:21:31] Frank: jazz fusion, like a good R& B jazz or a good rock jazz, but okay, [00:21:36] James: fine. Smooth jazz. There's only three options. There wasn't that much. For being Apple music. I mean, come on. And two of the [00:21:42] Frank: options were U2, so. [00:21:43] James: Yeah, that's true. Would you like U2? U2 or smooth jazz? I'm going to go with definitely smooth jazz, Apple, Tim Apple. Um, I love talking to people on the phone. It's, it's fantastic. It's, it's a rarity nowadays, but I did it. I waited, uh, uh, I waited for about five or six minutes. Not bad. It's literally one of the world's largest companies in the entire world. Not that bad of a wait. [00:22:10] Frank: Yeah. Google would be much longer. I've tried to call Google. You really can't, but I've tried. One time I [00:22:17] James: called, did I tell you I called the IRS one time? Uh, and. I tweeted the series of codes. There's a special 10. You have to get it right. It's like one, five, three, like every single step to actually talk to a person. And it's on Reddit. You have to like find it on Reddit. It's wild. And then you do it and it works and you talk to a person. It's crazy. Um, so I talked to one of the nicest people in the entire world. Just so nice. And I explain, I give her. The whole 20 minute shebang story. The whole, I'm like, let me lay it all out for you. [00:22:54] Frank: And for her, it's just another Tuesday. She's heard, like, 20 of these calls already today. She's like, oh, yeah. Walked out into a busy street, did you? Well, someone jumped out of an airplane to catch this one. [00:23:06] James: She's like, I'm busy over here, you know, collecting the, the satellite to saving real people that are doing a thing. But you, you know, you just want to watch the morning show. All right, now. Not to mention, you know, when I call, they know all my information. Cause I'm calling from my phone. My phone's linked to my iCloud account. They know everything. They call Mr. James Montemagno. Oh, is there something wrong with your iPhone or your Apple TV or your Apple watch? Like, no, it has nothing to do with that. Nope. It's all good. Apple, you know, I know everything. They're like, oh, are you having problems with the deck on your house? Wait a second. Apple, what's going on here? Little creepy. So anyways, I'm like, Hey, I laid out. She said, cool. Give me the serial number. Let me see what I can do. And I gave her the serial number, she said, cool, uh, just give me, give me a few minutes. Let me see what I can do. Uh, so she doesn't put me on back onto smooth jazz, which was a bold decision. Um, instead I got five or six minutes of smooth keyboard typing. Sound effects, which is great. Yeah. Wait, wait, [00:24:04] Frank: I'm sorry. What? Describe this more. Like a clickety keyboard? Like one of my, uh, okay. Five minutes [00:24:12] James: of that. That's weird. She's working. She's going to town. Or Googling something. I don't know. She's going to town. Doing something. Love it. Okay. And she comes back. She's like. Uh, can't do anything. Oh, geez. I was like, I can't do anything. I [00:24:26] Frank: was [00:24:27] James: like, what am I supposed to do? And then she's like, take us to your closest Apple store. And I was like, I was like, the closest Apple store is three hours away. And she's like, how about an authorized dealer? And I was all like, I was like, is there a way to look for that? And she's like, yeah, go to locations. apple. com. And I was like, I could take it to like, Boost Mobile or Walmart or something. They're going to throw it away. And then she goes. Or just take it to the local police station. [00:24:55] Frank: Uh, yeah, okay. I've had bad experiences with police detectives. I'm sure they're all lovely people, I'm sure. But I've had bad experiences with every police detective I've ever dealt with. I literally had items stolen with, like, the Find My iPhone tracking the people as they, like, steal my devices and carry them to Oregon or wherever they were going. And they're all like, we'll get back to you in two weeks. I'm But okay, okay, it's worth a try. It's worth a try. Don't let my biases affect you. [00:25:27] James: I looked on the Apple support forums and many people said, take it to the police station. They're, your city's lost and found. [00:25:37] Frank: I mean, okay, uh, uh, imagine you're this person. Maybe you would actually call the police and maybe they would have a record for you. It never even occurred to me for a lost iPhone though, honestly, to report it to the police. [00:25:50] James: You have some [00:25:51] Frank: activity over there. Maybe the police are [00:25:53] James: calling. Millie, Millie, Millie security over here. That's Millie. Sorry, sorry. Millie, hey, you want to come sit down? Hey, Millie, hey. Milly, hey, well, anyways, that's staying in the podcast. Okay. So Millie. [00:26:11] Frank: Our animals the most wonderful. Well, we said police too many times. [00:26:17] James: Okay. Milly in the back. In the back. Okay. This wouldn't be live to tape, but this wasn't. Yeah, she's on guard now. Okay. So I'm like. All right, I guess I can tell you the police, we got pretty cool police, they're fine, you know, whatever, but they're three miles away, so I guess I gotta cycle everything. I'm like, I guess... [00:26:39] Frank: Okay, but three miles is a lot less than three hours, I think, good Samaritan James, you're already on a roll here, you're doing so well, you've done your own detective work, I think it is about time to hand it off to the professionals. [00:26:53] James: Because I'm like, you know, at the end of the day, the detectives I imagine are taking the iPhone, they plug it into a special machine and they have everybody's information. Like that's my assumption, right? I, I [00:27:06] Frank: don't think so. I don't know. I don't work in a modern police office. Um, I don't think that they have a database or anything too special like that. What they do have is probably some authority with Apple where they could say, please look up the serial number. And tell us who bought [00:27:24] James: this phone. So I, I was like, okay, this is my last, this is my last chance. I'll do what Apple says. They say, take it to the police. So I print off all the information, all the information, which is not also suspicious at all, by the way, that I'm like, how are we not calling this? Yeah, not creepy. Uh, so I take it, I ride my bike over to the police station. Now, funnily enough, though, the phone's starting to get a little warm, and that's a little bit scary because the entirety of the front and the back are like very disconnected and like all over the place. So maybe I did turn it on when I plugged it in. I don't know. Paint [00:28:00] Frank: me a little bit more of a picture of like, is it the phone holding itself together? You said the back is off, but like, is it mostly [00:28:07] James: together? So the entire back of the screen, the entire back, all gone. You can see the inside. You can see the MagSafe. You can touch the MagSafe inside. All of the camera lenses, all three busted. The front shattered into a million pieces, bulging off the front. Still together magically. [00:28:24] Frank: Still amazingly together. Bulging from impact or bulging because the battery is bulging. This is kind of where I'm getting at. [00:28:31] James: It could be that. I don't know. It's very scary. And it's like strapped to my back as I ride to the police station. And I go to the, to the, the person at the counter and iPhone. I tell them the whole story. I've told the story four times now. The fifth time right now. I thought here's the whole story. It's getting better every time. And I go, uh, cause there's more to the story. And, and, uh, And I go, they're like, okay. And then she takes it and then she like touches it. She's like, this phone is getting really warm. I go, yes, I'm very scared. And that's why I'm going to leave it with you. But you know, it's like, it's like one of those things where you slide it under the glass. So you're like, yeah, slide it like, here you go. Right. And they take all, they take all of my information. [00:29:12] Frank: I like it because it reminds me of the Wizard of Oz, you know, when you, when you talk to the, the guy at the door, and you're like, here's my thing. Can I, can I hand this to you? And it's very Wizard of Oz. I do enjoy that about every police station I've ever been to. [00:29:27] James: And it was a great experience. I like locked up my bike, did all this stuff, and then gave her all the information. And then she's like, okay, let me take all of your information. So she's like, name, phone number, address, what time did you find it? What's this? And they're like, all this stuff. Right. And then. I drive my bike home and I get, I get like four text messages about like, from the police, off the police station. That's like, thanks for bearing with us. Like, hope everything's okay. Do you want to fill out the survey? No, I just dropped off an iPhone. I don't need this. I don't need to fill out a survey. I don't know. It's over. It's out of my hands. It's over, but I do want to know if it ever gets back to the person. So please let me know. So who knows, maybe a year from now. I will find out if this person has their iPhone. But the crazy part, the crazy part is that we were walking the dog. The lady who iPhone it was yelled out of her car. She's like, did you find an iPhone? We're like, no. Two minutes later, we're like, Oh, we found your iPhone. Nowhere to be found. Oh, what is the timing? Whoa. Keep circling. [00:30:30] Frank: Anyways, that's the direction? Like could they possibly have seen the case and they just happened to miss [00:30:33] James: it? Oh, that's the worst. Yes. That's the worst part of the I thought they turned and I thought they were going to park and come back. Yeah. Just gone. Gone. Oh man. Anyways. Yeah. This is why, I dunno, I find my phone. I was like, but then I was, it's I was like, I don't, I was like, what do you do in that case? Like, it's a rare case, but like, I'm like, you know, this thing, you know, you take it to the police station. Like this is a cornucopia of information on your life, right? It's a very, you know, Nat Fredman on stage on Xamarin evolved 2014. It was like, this thing is a alien comes down, blah, blah. It's like, this is like, this is you. Right. So I remember that as a good quote. So. [00:31:17] Frank: Uh, I would say in the end, you did the right thing, uh, because in that damaged state, I'm not even sure I would have gone as far as you, James, to be a hundred million percent honest. Now, okay, so let's, let's public service announcement here. Um, AppleCarePlus Pro. Does that include lost? [00:31:36] James: That's a great question. Apple, [00:31:38] Frank: Air. So like, could the person just declare it lost and get a new phone? I'm wondering if that's possible. Or do they have to actually have a trashed phone in their hand in order to get the accidental coverage to come back? I, I'm only asking because I, I have a lot of faith in police departments and by a lot, I mean zero. So I'm just not sure the phone's going to get back. [00:32:01] James: Well, here's a fun fact for you. Theft and loss coverage is included with AppleCare Plus with theft and loss for iPhone. So it's a special one. It's not just AppleCare Plus. It's AppleCare Plus. Plus. Yeah, I think it's plus the other stuff too. Oh yeah, it is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. [00:32:21] Frank: Okay. And your IMEI database probably didn't tell you that information. It said it was covered. It said it was covered. Okay. Well, that's going to add a little bit of extra paranoia for me of whether I want to add that kind of coverage to my phones. I don't even get, do you get the extended warranty for your phone? AppleCare. No, [00:32:40] James: no. It's too expensive. It is $150 a year. Not garbage. It's terrible. No, [00:32:45] Frank: and knock on wood and all that stuff, I just haven't dropped my phone in a long time. So, . [00:32:49] James: Well, the nice thing is like, you know, if I do, so here's, if you do lose your phone, that means you get a new phone, you get a new upgrade, you know, Heather, Heather, this happened to Heather. What if you can't [00:33:01] Frank: afford a phone at the time? Come on. You know you. It's a new phone. [00:33:05] James: Someone will give you, you spend all your money on it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I dunno. Well, Heather, uh, We're thinking about getting this is like four or five years ago. This is the phone that I have now was this, this incident. We were in Wallingford. Um, we're parking right by the Archie McPhee's, you know, where it's at. And, uh, Heather was getting out of the car and she had her phone on her lap. And during the drive and forgot it was there, got up, it fell. And there was a single, uh, um, uh, crack through the middle of the screen. She was devastated. Right. It's only like a year old and it's heartbreaking. Yeah. I was like, time for an upgrade. So we literally went down to you district, uh, the U village went into the Apple store. I was like, Hey, and then they're like, Oh, it's like, we should really just give you full, we'll give you full trade in for it. Nice. Okay. Cause we're like, does this happen? It was like, so disheartening. Yeah, we'll give you the full 600. I was like, cool. 300 upgrade. Bingo. Bango. Like Apple's really good with the amount of price that they gave you. So she, she went from an iPhone X. To an iPhone, like 12 Pro or whatever. Wow, that was great. 300 bucks. I was like, well worth it done. You know? So, [00:34:18] Frank: okay. So for if we're, if we're gambling then here, um, do you think the person would have gotten the lost coverage? I'm, I'm guessing No. On my side. Will the person receive the phone back from the police? It is possible because the police deal with a lot of theft, obviously. Yeah. And so they may have special tools for it. They may be able to. Customer information from a serial, but it's still feeling a little bit, uh, less likely. We'll just go with that. I was, what's your, what's your gambling prediction? Well, [00:34:54] James: I did look this up. The, you know, now don't, so here's the thing with the, with the Apple care plus, plus theft and loss, whatever it is, you still have to pay a deductible, right? You know, on top of it. So it's like you, you pay for the coverage and then you also had to pay 150 if it's theft or loss, but if it's screen or back glass damage, that's only 29. Other accidental damage, 99, they're probably gonna charge her the 99. But I assume that. She did have Apple care plus, which is good, you know, but my assumption is that didn't have the plus loss or plus theft, because that would be for her phone is 250 for two years. That's a long time. Plus a hundred feet. That was now you're in 400 and your phone's three years old. That's a lot. So, [00:35:45] Frank: and also just to add evidence, I've literally never heard of that program before, so it's good that we've both learned today that there is actually a loss, but yeah, I don't see too many people. [00:35:55] James: Spending the monies on it. No, I think that Back to her. I think it'll get back to her. I hope. Good man. [00:36:03] Frank: Ever the optimist. A good Samaritan should be an optimist. [00:36:07] James: I would like to think so. I returned a wallet and a cell phone this week. I'm feeling great. What else will I find in return? Nobody knows. But um. It's karma, man. [00:36:18] Frank: You're just building up the karma, you know. You're gonna trip and nothing's gonna hurt you and you're gonna be like, oh yeah, good karma. And you're going to be fine. I hope so. That's what's going to [00:36:27] James: happen. That is my lost iPhone story, Frank. See, I, I [00:36:31] Frank: love that. I love that. Um, I actually have a good friend that loves to do this kind of investigative stuff. And so I always joke that he's like my informal PI. So whenever something like this happens, I actually always chuck it on over to my friend just to let the unofficial PI run it. So I, I like that you got to be a little bit of a private investigator. And go through all this. And I think we all learned something today. I learned, gotta, gotta keep driving around on that road and find your phone. Like, I, I am curious why they were looking for the case and not the phone. Were they tired of the phone? And they're like, oh, but that was a really nice case. I really want that case back. I do wonder what the actual circumstances were. [00:37:13] James: I, I assume that the, the bright red case is like standout, right? But. I mean, she didn't say a phone in a bright red case. She was like, did you see a bright red case? Which I mean, is what you would see visually. So I get it, but yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's a nice phone. It's what you would see [00:37:30] Frank: visibly, but as a human being person, what do you say to another person? You're like, I lost my phone. It's a bright red case. That's what you say. You don't say, I lost a bright red case. So [00:37:40] James: it's just, whatever. [00:37:42] Frank: Um, it's just [00:37:43] James: kind of funny. [00:37:45] Frank: Hmm. Um, I'm, I'm glad. The world has someone like you. I'm glad it's not me because I think I still would have thrown it in the garbage and just hope that they had the coverage. [00:37:57] James: I was mostly, I was terrified of throwing the garbage just because the battery and whatever was happening seemed like a dangerous, well, I mean, you know, the other thing I was thinking is like, well, okay, if I can't find anything, maybe Apple gave me some credit for finding this phone, but I was like, then they'll the serial number. I'm gonna get in trouble if I try to do something. Well, you're not a good [00:38:18] Frank: Samaritan anymore. If you want credit. [00:38:20] James: Yeah. Which I did. I just wanted to find a good home back where it belonged. [00:38:29] Frank: Uh, I'm going to join you in being an optimist and just say, yes, the phone will get back home. We'll, we'll just, we'll live in that fantasy world where the phone finds its way back home. [00:38:38] James: Oh, you know, and it's wild because like you had your phone lost in the bottom of the sea, couldn't find it back. If any one of our listeners have had. Any sort of similar situation to yourself or to a loved one or a non loved one or someone else as a random person that you found their phone. Did you get the phone back? I'm super curious because I want to know. Yeah. And then I'm just like, has, you know, mine still has the SIM, but I don't have the SIM in it. So I'm like, eSIM. Like, have we evolved too, too much? So anyways, let us know, write us in the show, go to merchconflict. fm. Tell us your story. We'll read it back live on air. Send us a, send us an audio clip. 60 second audio clip, 5, 10, 40 minutes. It doesn't matter. We'll just play it back as sponge bonus, bonus episodes of Lost. Is this a new podcast? Lost, The Lost iPhone Files. Ooh, I like it. [00:39:37] Frank: I think it'll be great for the, about the first 50 episodes, it might get a little more after the first 50, but I think we could get 50 out of it. [00:39:44] James: So I found an iPhone on the ground. Yeah, exactly. All right. That's going to do it for this week's podcast. Make sure you go to all the things, merchconflict. fm. There's a, there's a YouTube channel. There's um, there's other things. You can find us, hit us up. There's a Patreon feed. Uh, you can write at us, do all this stuff. But that's gonna do it for this week's podcast. Uh, so until next week, I'm James Montemagno. [00:40:07] Frank: And I'm Frank Krueger. Thank you for watching and listening. [00:40:10] James: Peace.