As iPhones reach the pinnacle of popularity and sales continue strong, the iPhone is popping up as a topic in more and more conversations. It would seem that the iPhone has reached a level of importance that it is more firmly integrated with daily life. As the iPhone shows up in more news stories, I thought it could be fun to highlight the good and the bad appearances.
The good iPhone and earth guardian
In a recent article for The Herald-News, columnist Rose Panieri shared a story of a good citizen in action. Pat Manske of Joliet, Illinois, who was cleaning up her property recently when she came across an iPhone. She turned the phone into the police and the article was written to alert the neighborhood that a phone had been found. The article was more of a humorous approach to a lost and found advertisement, but the facts remain true. However, columnist Panieri's humorous approach only emphasized the truth: A lost iPhone was found and someone made an effort to do something good rather than using the device for crime or evil.
“I don't know Manske, but I certainly admire her,” Panieri wrote. “The vast majority of folks resent like heck having to pick up someone else's garbage.” She later added, “Unlike me, Manske is on the lookout for trash every day – taking on neighborhood slobs single-handedly. Objects that have touched hygiene-challenged human mouths have no power to turn her insides to jelly. She's not a woman who would let even a mountain of mouth bacteria stop her from making her neighborhood shine.”
The bad
To balance out the odd happenings of good Samaritans finding iPhones, there is, of course, a story of a man choosing to use the iPhone for malintent. According to a New York Post report, a 47-year-old man was arrested for attempting to steal from a clothing store and was being held in a cell at the West Village station house when the sound of a phone ringing came from the man's pants. The man, identified as Trent Patterson, was discovered to have stolen the iPhone earlier that day. He admitted to authorities that he had stashed the device where the sun don't shine – for lack of a better word – when he was arrested for burglary.
If Patterson's story teaches us anything, it's that crime doesn't pay. When a good Samaritan puts forth the extra effort to return a lost iPhone to its owner, she gets an editorial published about how truly good she is. However, when a man jacks an iPhone and hides it in unsanitary places while being charged for a separate crime, he generally gets what he deserves: criminal charges and a stint back in prison. Luckily iResQ's iPhone repair services can fix any damage that would have been caused by an unfortunate iPhone's loss or theft.