Found a Blackberry - can't locate owner

bobtail_5

Hi,

My dad found a blackberry curve several months back in his taxi that a customer had left behind. He notified the office to let them know so that the customer could get it back but apparently no one had been in to collect it. The person who's phone it was kept calling their phone but we couldn't answer as it had been locked with a password. My sister set up a facebook page asking friends if they or anyone they knew had lost their phone. No one came forward and my dad still has the phone.

Just wondering what we should do now with it as it has been a couple of months now. There are a group of girls on the front desktop screen and we identified the background as being from one of the venues at Essex uni. We figured out that the girls are foreign after some research and there is a possibility that they are no longer living in Essex or at the university.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? There isn't anything else we can do to return the phone to its owner as the screen is completely locked now. If we tried to get the memory wiped there would be no trace of the owner and numbers we could try calling.

Thanks!

vax2002

Might want to keep quiet, I think you are supposed to report it to the police, not the "office"

OneADay

Take it to the police, they will trace it back to the owner through the IMEI and network.
If the owner had any sense, they would have reported it stolen and blocked the IMEI.

Guys_Dad

bobtail_5 wrote: »

Hi,

The person who's phone it was kept calling their phone but we couldn't answer as it had been locked with a password.

Thanks!

Did the number they were calling from not come up on the screen?

McKneff

I dont understand why you didnt take it to the police station. Or the office didnt take it to the Police.

Dont you thnk the person who lost it may have reported it to the police. In which case it would have been reunited with its owner
straight away.

bobtail_5

Well it made sense for the person to retrace their steps and go straight to the taxi rank. Anyway, I don't trust the pigs it's safer in my hands than theirs.

pimento

I never knew you could password protect a BB so that you have to enter the password to answer a call.

In fact, I'm sure you can't.

Owain_Moneysaver

bobtail_5 wrote: »

Well it made sense for the person to retrace their steps and go straight to the taxi rank. Anyway, I don't trust the pigs it's safer in my hands than theirs.

When I handed a phone into the police I was given a receipt, numbered and duplicate, so the chances of it getting 'lost' after that would be remote (and detectable).

Decluttering

Do you know the phone number of the phone? You could try sending a letter to Essex Uni asking them to forward on details of where the phone is to the student whose details match. This wouldn't be considered a breach of privacy because they would not be providing details of the student (if they are a student there) to a third party, simply passing on a message. Whether they would be prepared to help though I'm not sure.

scheming_gypsy

As it's been 'several months', they've probably replaced the phone. you might as well take the sim card out, give it a hard reset and then stick the sim card back in to see if they have any phone numbers or contacts on it.

If it's a contract phone it's probably gone an IMEI lock on it, if it's a PAYG phone then they probably didn't have the IMEI number to cancel it.

alexdrans

You should just keep it if you've made reasonable attempts to locate the owner.