Dear OzBargainers,
I had an interesting conversation with a mate of mine who works at a night club.
She told me that at work, she saw a full box of unclaimed phones which are predominantly iPhones 4,5 and 6.
She was asking if they can be used for a better good instead of just sitting in a cupboard. Mind you some of these phones have been sitting there for over 6 to 12 month with no words from the owner.
Any advice?
Is there a way to restore/wipe clean iPhones without passcode?
don't do anything with them
they belong to someone else
unless you want to play with possible criminal charges of handle stolen goods or theft, let them rot in the box….your choice
Just drop them all at your local cop shop. They can check the serials and cross reference that with reports. Otherwise they auction them off. That way it's not your problem.
Handling stolen goods is a crime.
The cops will probably just factory reset them and take them home.
Anyway, don't listen to Holden, he's a noob. iPhones can be easily reset if you don't know the passcode.
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204306
Check out the Recovery Mode option.
The cops will probably just factory reset them and take them home.
once the IMEI is blocked, they can really only be used like an ipod touch… which for any adult is useless.
ipod touch… which for any adult is useless
What? Im gonna refrain from bitter comebacks, but maybe educate yourself before you speak on behalf of all adults.
If Find My iPhone is still activated, the phone can be restored with Recovery Mode but will never be able to activate.
Not if they have find my iPhone enabled. That will lock them even after a reset. Looks like you are the n00b.
Actually, with a manual IPSW update it may still be possible, n00b.
It is not. The phone contacts the apple activation servers during set up and passes that information to the phone. There is no restore that removes that. n00b.
there is no way to unlock it from the activation lock when updated or reset, only apple can do that when shown proof of purchase
Could be a privacy issue too - railcorp got busted for selling lost & found USBs that they'd wiped using commercial software - the data was easily recoverable. I imagine you'd face the same issues with phones.
Chances are, those people don't even know where they lost their phone. I doubt they just abandoned their $500+ phone.
I thought most places would hold onto items for about a month and then hand it over to the police.
The will be a specific law on this. I don't know it but the issue of lost property is as old as time.
No doubt there will be a requirement to hand it over to the police after a certain waiting period. The police will give you a detailed receipt and handle things legally. The will attempt to find the owners then auction the goods if they cannot. The action will generate a receipt and the winner would become the new legal owner. This is not some third world shit-hole where you automatically assume the cops are corrupt. We have laws and processes.
Tell her to just drop them at the closest cop shop with approval from the manager of the night club of course.
The cops will tell the owner what to do.
Most people given it is a nightclub will probably have written off their lost device because it will have run out of batteries by the time they wake up after their night out so they won't know where it is.
If what you are asking is if can she sell them on eBay - NO is the answer.
send them to ur relatives in overseas
Donate them to EC
Electronic Criminal?
I am sure owners would have called their phones at some stage, would anyone have answered?
anyway, simply take them to the police as lost goods.
I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a dog who's owner pulls them apart and sells them to a guy who eats cat for a living. I can pass them on to to the guy's guy's dog's owners guy's cat if you like?
The nightclub should have a policy that dictates what happens to these phones (and other lost property).
The cops won't thank them for dumping a pile of phones that are months old.
The policy should say something like they keep them for one week, take whatever measures are reasonable to find the owner and if that is not successful hand them straight away to the cops.
Power the recently lost ones up and find their owners. That would be how I would define myself performing good customer service.
In my neck of the woods (five years of training) I'd take down as many details/IMEI's/photos of the phones as you can. Pass them all onto my local station, get a receipt.
In three months probably 90% of them would be returned to me and as the now legal owner I'd be able to ebay/sell to the phone sites.
My Wife found an new looking iPad at the (unattended) station yesterday.
Rang Metro to see if anyone had called asking for it as its a smaller station - they said bring it in. Yeah, right never to be heard of again. Trust Metro staff ….yah.
We will take it to the cop shop tonight.
What's Metro? Sounds like tricky dicky's staff lol.
My handbag was stolen from where I worked and the person who stole it took money out of my wallet and left everything else scattered in a Woolworths car park. My friend texted my phone asking that whoever finds this phone to please call her number. Was a while ago so I cannot remember if she got a message but my husband ended up speaking to the staff at Woolworths, not sure if they called him from my phone or whether he called my mobile. End result, I went to Woolworths and collected all my items. The staff were amazing.
It is a pity that the night club has not made any effort to find the owners of these phones. As someone mentioned above, the owners would have called their own phones as soon as they realised that they had lost them. Probably the next day. If someone had answered them, they could have been returned to their rightful owners. This would not have taken up much time or effort.
The staff were amazing.
Which woolies is this?
Camberwell.
Well said. I am sure the small effort on their behalf saved you a major nightmare.
Yes. I was so relieved.
Cant beleive nobody has said this but why dont they charge the battery and turnthem on?
If they have the find my phone feature on the owner will be alerted when the phone is turned on.
I don't think anyone has put any effort in trying to find the owners
Yeah, I would have hoped they cared more for their customers.
nope without the password to remove there apple account and restore iphone it';s only good for parts.
besides i bet lots are imei blocked which is what most lost phones are.