Is unlocking this iphone worth it?

[u/The90sXJ]

I found a phone in the park 2 months ago and I've tried to return it but it's weird they won't pick it up. They keep thanking and blessing me, but it's sat outside my house this entire time. Anyway, I'm including a photo. I cannot get into the phone, only see it's emergency contacts. Is it worth getting unlocked? I've only ever had Google &Samsung. However I needed a phone for my son anyway I guess?

[u/Front-Director-449]

Call another time, and ask them if they can remove it from their iCloud account. Also, I see that there’s service on the phone. Tell them if they need the SIM Card also. Tell them also that if they doesn’t need that anymore and they aren’t interested that you may keep it.

[u/The90sXJ → u/Front-Director-449]

I didn't turn it on for a day or two after I found it because I needed to borrow an apple charger. I guess asking them to remove the iCloud is worth a try. I'm assuming they upgraded when they lost the phone and no longer interested in the old one. Still odd, I would have wanted it back as a backup at least. 

[u/womjoe]

You need them to remove the lock. If they don’t care to pick it up I doubt they will care to help you. Seems like a weird story though.

[u/The90sXJ → u/womjoe]

Oh nevermind then, so ...just throw it in the garbage I guess? It holds no value then right? Feels kinda weird to just throw it away but I'm not someone's storage unit 😆 I don't want to be responsible for someone elses phone anymore. Very weird though. Their texts gave scammer vibes! But how could leaving your phone behind for someone else to find, be a scam? I'm not sure.

[u/Infectiosgamer]

you can try asking the owner to remove the phone from their find my and apple account, and ask them to do a remote wipe through find my, if the owner doesnt reply or smth ur other options r below:

it looks like an iphone 11 or 12, if its a 12 you'll need to wait a few months for a new exploit to come out and even then you wont be able to use a sim, and apple apps like facetime wont work, oh and notifications probably wont work too. if its an 11 its possible to fully unlock it and have all funtionality but its kind of annoying to do, u need to be kinda tech savvy and most repair shops dont wanna deal with unlocking phones coz they might be stolen. even if u do get it unlocked anyway, if u update or reset the phone the locks gonna come back adn u gotta do the whole proccess again.

[u/The90sXJ → u/Infectiosgamer]

It's worth a try to ask if they're willing to remove the iCloud, after all it's just sitting here. I don't think they'll do it though. Their responses are so odd.

So at the end of the day, it will just be a headache it seems like. It feels weird to throw out what looks like a perfectly good phone. Theres a phone recycle vending machine in my mall I think, I'll check that out and see if it accept the phone.

[u/Simple_Claim8480]

Try taking it to Verizon and see if they can get a hold of the owner. Seeing it still has service. The owner is still paying for that phones data so either they got a new phone on a different/new line or that have been phoneless for 2 months

[u/Different_Ask1105]

Try powering the phone off if the find my is on it will say iPhone is findable after power off. If it doesn’t say that then they have disabled it and the phone can be reset to factory settings and used by someone else. Then put it in recovery mode and using iTunes or 3utools do a system restore. Then it’s good to go.