Phound Phone

February 2, 2008 11:50 AM

I found a Blackberry 8830 (I think) the other day -- it was sitting on the back of my car which was parked out in the carport. Now what?

I would like to do one of the following things, in order of preference:

1) Find the original owner and get it back to him/her.
2) Failing that, re-activate it for myself [it is a Verizon Wireless phone, as is mine].
3) Failing that, sell it on Ebay.

Obviously the first option would be most ideal.

The catch is: it's not turning on. I tried plugging it into my iBook with a mini USB cable and nothing happened. SO -- what do I do now? Are there other ways of getting into this thing to try to see if there's some "if found, contact ____" info, or should I not worry about it at all, or is the thing completely borked?

posted by rossination to technology (10 comments total)

Just take it to a Verizon store and let them handle it. I'm sure they can find the owner via the ESN.
posted by 4ster at 12:00 PM on February 2, 2008

A non-technical solution: I assume you live in an apartment or condo. If so, try posting a flyer near where you park your car. Have the caller identify the brand and color.
posted by metahawk at 12:01 PM on February 2, 2008

There is a sim card in the back. If you place the sim card in a working GSM phone, you'll be able to discover the phone number. The verizon store will do just that and locate the owner of the phone.
posted by about_time at 12:05 PM on February 2, 2008

I am a Verizon Wireless employee. If you provide the a store with the ESN or MEID (will be on the back of the phone under the battery) they can do a search in our billing system to find out the customer that owns it. They should not give you the name/number of the user but instead should take your information and contact the customer themselves and let them know.

Assuming you get a charger... If you are able to power it up most likely it will be automatically locked if it's setup on a corporate server anyways so you won't be able to identify the number. I always recommend people set a name, phone number, and address on the banner but most people don't do it. Note that if you do get it turned on and enter the wrong password 10 times it will wipe the memory.

If you don't want to work through the store MeFi mail me and I can pull it up in our system but I'm probably going to make you wait until Monday as it takes me forever to get logged into the VPN and our billing system remotely.

There is a sim card in the back. If you place the sim card in a working GSM phone, you'll be able to discover the phone number. The verizon store will do just that and locate the owner of the phone.

The 8830 for Verizon doesn't actually require a SIM card. Only those that are setup with a Global package will have a SIM card installed and I'm fairly certain they lock our SIMs somehow so they only work with our phones and possibly Vodaphone's.
posted by Octoparrot at 12:13 PM on February 2, 2008

The Blackberry is kind of finicky about how it handles power - you have to install specific drivers to get the mini USB to work. MacSync is what you need, with a mini-USB cable, to get it to charge. I think you can opt to not sync anything, then power it up and see what you need.

Also, a Verizon (CDMA) phone will not have a SIM card.
posted by uaudio at 12:14 PM on February 2, 2008

uaudio, the 8830 is Verizon's Global Blackberry. It utilizes GSM and CDMA.
posted by Octoparrot at 12:17 PM on February 2, 2008

Drop it off at a Verizon store as suggested. It's the least troublesome solution for you and the owner might get his/her phone back.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:27 PM on February 2, 2008

Uhm...yea, no. If you leave it at the store it'll never, ever find it's way back to the owner. At least, I seriously doubt it.
posted by TomMelee at 3:45 PM on February 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would just call your closest store and ask them if they can notify the owner with your contact info. Don't go out of your way to drop it off.

I'd be happy to help on Monday if you want to MefiMail me the MEID.
posted by Octoparrot at 7:40 PM on February 2, 2008

If you do get any power to it and can turn it on, and the handset isn't locked by a password, you can go to options on the menu screen, then "owner" and see if the owner entered any information in.

Another possibility was it was a dropped phone for a top secret operation and you are interfering, watch yourself ;-)
posted by ijoyner at 6:38 AM on February 4, 2008