Found a phone in my garden - isolated property - shit scared

You can call Apple support, read the IEM number off the back of the phone and they can look up the Apple account and iCloud email associated with the phone. They can’t tell you who it is, but they can email the owner to let them know you found their phone.
They’re probably a local who was out walking around for lockdown exercise and has lost their phone.

I paid about £600 for my iPhone and it’s a few years old, so I guess it depends on what you call cheap.

I recently plugged in an old iPhone (my own) and it took a long time to turn on, but did eventually. Obviously this is sort of good news as means the phone may not have been used for a while making an innocent reason more likely.

I would check and possibly increase my home security. I'd say there's a decent chance it was accidentally dropped by a burglar casing your house. That would explain the dog barking too. Dogs deter most burglars but not all.

Unlikely someone would break in specifically to recover the phone, but more likely someone would break in to steal whatever they can.

Oh and forgot to add - OP tell me you can drive . These Mumsnetters can never drive either, and have toddlers.

I am regularly amazed by the number of Mumsnetters who live miles from anywhere. The OP lives a whole MILE from an actual road ? Where do you all live, and why?!

/misses point of thread

I wouldn't try to charge it while it's wet but my kids once found an apple phone in a rocky, fast flowing river where it had obviously been for some time judging from the smashed up state of it. After leaving it a couple of days in our drying room we charged it and got it to boot. Couldn't get past the login screen as it was locked but it was a working phone. The police may well be able to get info off yours.

@Namechangex10000 exactly, I'd be really freaked out!

I know it's not the point of the post but where on earth do you live that the police would come round to collect a lost phone? That's so bizarre. It wouldn't even occur to me to ring the police for that.

I don’t think iPhones are that expensive.

Ds has one. It is a 2nd phone on my account and is around £12 per month for his calls, texts and internet.

Hopefully it belongs to my friend and that's why he hasn't messaged me lately 🤔.

It amazes me how many posters have a tone of finding it ridiculous that the op is scared? She lives remotely, the phones in her garden, the phone was not able to have been thrown there - therefore, someone has been in her garden and she does not know who, it’s quite clear where the concern lies and why the concern is there, she did not just simply “find a phone” randomly.

As for the other poster not understanding why burglaries aren’t on the op but car crime is - probably because everybody is at home?! I despair.

Shagging phone (sorry secret phone )normally £10 pay as you go not apple phones worth hundred's

My sister found an old phone and put it to charge waiting for the owner to get in touch.

At 2 am a mum called looking for her daughter, as she was unable to find her. Turned out the girl had been attacked and her boyfriend beaten unconscious, the perpetrator just throw the phone out of his car when he was fleeing the scene.

@ScarredBunny

So what did the Police say then?

@ScarredBunny of the phome is dead and cannot be charged then find my iphone will not work. It needs to be able to ping a tower to work

Maybe it's your husbands secret phone. Joking.

I live remote. Really remote. I found a very fresh cigarette in our garden once years ago. It on top of the grass like it had just been flicked there. Gave me the right heebies for ages!
I get why you are freaked out by this OP

While I think there is something a bit off about this thread, I'm baffled by the 'why are you scared?' and 'it was probably crows' posters.

can you drop it at the police station? It is a bit scary, but it is more likely to have a benign explanation than anyhting scary.

I hope you find out what happened, OP. I think it must be an animal, tbh, because if someone was hanging around your house the last thing they'd do is let go of their phone as they might need it for a flashlight.

I'd still get some sort of outdoor CCTV though.

Just wondered if you have teens who might have had a friend visit in the night? I hope this gets sorted out soon. My dad lives rurally and he had 2 men snooping about looking through his windows on the 2nd day of lockdown! I told him that if they come back to cough a lot and shout out asking if they have come back to do a second round of COVID tests...

I have read a couple of times that car crime is up, why that and not burglaries is a puzzle to me.

We used to live in an isolated place like this. It is very odd, the worst we wound were empty bottles of booze thrown over the walls.

Hope that made sense.

Leave lights on downstairs at night. I already do.

Let the dog roam your downstairs freely at night, if it can be trusted not to chew, I would, as they are a good alarm.

If you lose an iphone, and it still has charge, you can find where it is, if it has no charge you can’t

I would be worried who was about at night, so remain vigilant.

I honestly put chairs in odd places, block doors with tilted chairs etc, and leave lights on in different rooms.