Phone Home

Or Phones, Homies

Just a quick blog before I do my Year End Wrap Up. One thing that I find quite often when I’m creek and stream detecting are cell phones. I’ve found at least 25 since I started detecting. At first, I would just dispose of them; then I decided to collect them. I’m not sure why, because they’re obviously not that old (or even in working order). My question is: How do so many end up in the water? I can see a tuber or kayaker maybe losing one, but most of the ones I’ve found are in sections not known for water recreation, or the stream is too small and shallow for floating.

There’s a couple of flip phones, a couple of slide phones, and a lot of regular cell phones.

Interesting story: like other detectorists, I’m guessing, I watch a lot of YouTube videos about metal detecting. One night I was watching a video of someone detecting in a creek, and he found a cell phone. When he removed the case, he found a hundred dollar bill! The very next day I was detecting a nearby creek, and I found a cell phone. I didn’t think too much about it; I was hoping for far older artifacts. I put it in my pouch and brought it home with me, and showed my better half and said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was cash stashed in there?” I pried the case off, and incredibly, out fell a hundred dollar bill! I immediately went back and removed the cases from all the other phones I’ve found, but sadly, no more cash was forthcoming.

What’s your theory for why so many phones end up in the water? Leave a comment below.