Sunday, January 13, 2019

Little Lost Android

I went to Gold Fork Hot Springs with my daughter and son-in-law yesterday and had a lovely time--until I realized that my phone apparently slipped out of my pocket in the locker room.  By the time we returned a half hour later, it was nowhere to be found, so I used the lost Android app.  On my wife's phone, the resolution was so poor that it appeared to still be near the hot springs, so I locked it remotely.  Once home, I was able to nail the location down to 44°41'14.5"N 116°02'08.3"W. This is in the middle of the road leading back to ID-55. My guess is that whoever found it realized it was now locked and threw it out the window. (I would gladly have paid $100 for its return.)

I called Valley County Sheriff's Department, giving them the coordinates and suggesting that they might get the thief's prints off the phone. (Looking at the crowd there, I suspect those prints are already on file.) They sent someone out to find it! I received a call back last night but not a voicemail. I am guessing a deputy went there and failed to find it. Even 0.1 second (about 100 feet) is still a pretty big area in the dark.

 So I need to buy a new phone today.  I doubt that I bought insurance; I have never lost a cell phone (until yesterday).  One more aggravation.  Do any of you live near Cascade or Donnelly?

To my surprise, I insured the phone.  I am paying Assurion a $19 deductible, with an identical replacement phone delivered by mail tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. In the early 00's, I patrolled 101 in the San Jose/Sunnyvale area. Found a guy searching the ground on the far side of the guardrail. Story was he got a call, and his girlfriend realized he was talking to another girl, so she snatched the phone and tossed it out the window. He didn't find it that day.
    Most lost phones I dealt with were either bounced around during a crash, or left on top of the vehicle and found in the roadway or on the shoulder. I stopped more than one vehicle with a phone sitting on the roof or trunk.
    Wallets get lost the same way. Getting gas just before the freeway, perhaps? Unfortunately, tumbling along the ground, and the constant wind that is traffic generated, tends to strip out cards and cash from the typical wallet. I'd see the hologram reflection from a card, and search for the wallet, and then walk the direction of traffic to find the rest of the cards. Almost never found any cash if it came out.

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  2. As far as your deductible: I know a guy who used to work for Apple, and he said that an iPhone only cost $18 to produce. No idea how accurate that number might be, but considering how much they have banked, it would make sense. An Android might be cheaper.

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