Friend found a DROID

[chaaaad]

Firstly, this phone was NOT stolen. It was left at a friend's work and was never claimed. There are no contacts or recent calls (looks like someone did a factory reset).

Now my question is, can I use this phone as a backup in case anything ever happens to mine? If the phone was reported as lost could I get in trouble for using it?

 

[ChevyNexus]

maybe, depends, my friend bought a Mac Book for his girl over craiglists, long story short, the thing turned out to be stolen she broke the disk drive took it to the mac cafe an they held it an detained her till the police arrived but the cop let her go because he felt sorry for her. So you could get in trouble, the right thing to do is one not take it in the first place, but if you did take it into Verizon an say you found it.

 

[Vulcan1600]

The right thing to do is to call VZW or visit a store, give them the MEID/ESN number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

 

[z96Cobra]

Your friend should take it to Verizon and turn it in. They know who it belongs to.

 

[ChevyNexus]

The right thing to do is to call VZW or visit a store, give them the MEID/ESN number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

Or that idea haha.

 

[chaaaad]

The right thing to do is to call VZW or visit a store, give them the MEID/ESN number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

Didn't think about the MEID. Thanks, I'll give them a call tomorrow. Just to clarify, I'm not trying to take it! I'm perfectly happy using my D2

 

[mwhartman]

I agree with Vulcan! Take the high road and contact VZW

 

[Suuperflie]

Firstly, this phone was NOT stolen. It was left at a friend's work and was never claimed. There are no contacts or recent calls (looks like someone did a factory reset).

Now my question is, can I use this phone as a backup in case anything ever happens to mine? If the phone was reported as lost could I get in trouble for using it?

Right, because people do a factory reboot at work all the time. And, if it's someone that did that to their phone, they're probably someone that would use it a lot. Funny that the owner didn't receive or make calls/texts for all that time after it was supposedly reset. Pretty convenient story. Take it back to Verizon.:icon_evil:

 

[donzz]

the right thing to do is to call vzw or visit a store, give them the meid/esn number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

this! Now!

 

[RW-1]

The right thing to do is to call VZW or visit a store, give them the MEID/ESN number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

+10.


Since when do you "find" a Droid? You know, one that had to be purchased and activated before leaving a store into the wild? Waiting for you to get it and ask us here "Can I use this?" I always love that story ...


You have issues being here on this forum and even thinking about keeping it for yourself, period. there are plenty of ways to get it back to its owner and look in the mirror, you know it too.


I'm not going to say he has stolen property, as for that to be true, the owner would have had to file a report that it was stolen.


If he notified VZ about the phone, they would kill the meid and that classification is "lost/stolen" covering both categories.


All that said, you take it back to a store NOW.


It's not yours, you didn't buy it, it does not belong to you, so NO you can't use it.

 

[rustydogg]

Over the years I've found a few things. Some years ago I found a very fancy Sprint cellphone just hanging from a fence by the sidewalk at my job.
It was weird because it had a belt clip and someone had used that to hang it from the chain wire fence right by the sidewalk.
At first I did'n't notice it and I had to look twice at it just to make sure it was a phone.
It was a nice looking phone with a leather case. I inspected it tried to look at the contacts to try to figure out who the ownder was but it was locked.
However the battery was almost fully charged. I took it with me and gave it to security.
Later I thought that maybe someone found it on the ground and put it on the chain link fence in order to make it easier to find.
I don't know how long security held their stuff for but after sometime I later found out that they throw away unclaimed property.
My coworker "rescued" a cheap nokia phone from being tossed out by Security.
It was locked to the carrier but I found the unlocked code for it. He gave it to me and I used it for some months until it died.
I think that nowadays security turns over their electronic stuff to our E waste recycling program. I think that the company gets some sort of money or tax rebate for it.

Also I've wondered what the concensus is on bad ESN cell phones. Are they stolen property because they belong to the carrier since an individual broke their contract?
Or are do they belong to the individual who broke the contract because they will pay dearly regardless for breaking the contract with their carrier :icon_evil:

 

[soccerdude6227]

The right thing to do is to call VZW or visit a store, give them the MEID/ESN number and they will return it to the rightful owner.

You are in possession of stolen property.

+10.


Since when do you "find" a Droid? You know, one that had to be purchased and activated before leaving a store into the wild? Waiting for you to get it and ask us here "Can I use this?" I always love that story ...


You have issues being here on this forum and even thinking about keeping it for yourself, period. there are plenty of ways to get it back to its owner and look in the mirror, you know it too.


I'm not going to say he has stolen property, as for that to be true, the owner would have had to file a report that it was stolen.


If he notified VZ about the phone, they would kill the meid and that classification is "lost/stolen" covering both categories.


All that said, you take it back to a store NOW.


It's not yours, you didn't buy it, it does not belong to you, so NO you can't use it.

There is no need to continue jumping down the guys' throat about it saying he has issues being here. He came concerned and asked a question. His question was answered with the correct response already and he acknowledged that and said he would contact Verizon about the phone. That is enough.