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This article was published on September 13, 2014

#iPhoneRescue: The gripping social media saga of a missing smartphone


#iPhoneRescue: The gripping social media saga of a missing smartphone

Back in early August, TNW’s Community Director Matt Navarra was invited to a gathering of friends in London for a boat trip along the Thames.

Later that evening, Matt discovered his iPhone was missing. Apple’s Find My iPhone service reported the phone alive and well, and located in the exact spot the boat had dropped him off.

The next day, Matt went back to the boat and the owners helped him search for the missing iPhone. Even though ‘Find My iPhone’ was saying it was on the boat, it was nowhere to be found. With nothing else to be done, Matt left his details with the boat owners in case it turned up.

Unexpectedly, the next day, ‘Find My iPhone’ pinged again to show Matt’s iPhone a few yards further away from the boat, in the River Thames. Then, the battery ran out and Matt pretty much gave up hope of ever seeing it again.

But then…

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Matt was working at home around 3 weeks later, when suddenly, the ‘Lost Mode’ on Find My iPhone reported that his lost phone had been switched back on. However, the location it showed was somewhere completely different – some six miles north-west of where it had last shown up.

Matt put out an SOS on Twitter to see if anyone could help him retrieve his phone. Ben Donkor stepped up, other Twitter users followed suit, and so the story begins…

Header image credit: Neirfy/Shutterstock

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