Working cell phone returned to owner after nearly 6 months at the bottom of Harrison Lake



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Fatemeh Ghodsi was skeptical at first when she received a text from someone saying she had found her phone almost six months after losing it in Harrison Lake.

Ghodsi, who lives in Vancouver, was confused and thought a friend of his might be playing a prank on him. But she was quickly convinced and made the trip to Chilliwack to retrieve the phone, which still works surprisingly.

Clayton Helkenberg and his wife Heather found the lost iPhone 11 while sweeping the lake bottom under Harrison Lake Waterpark – part of a hobby that includes uncovering strange treasures, but more importantly just lots of garbage cleaning.

Ghodsi dropped the phone in the water in early September, while out for a ride on the bumper boats – photos retrieved from the phone still show her smiling moments before the crash.

Fatemeh Ghodsi gives the peace sign as she and her friend are seen on bumper boats in Harrison Lake in early September. Moments later, Ghodsi’s phone was lost at the bottom of the lake. (Fatemeh Ghodsi)

“I was in a situation where I kind of lost my balance and dropped it into the water,” she said, adding that the water park staff had convinced her that it would be impossible to find the phone in deep water.

“Distressed and in tears, we returned to Vancouver just in despair,” said Ghodsi.

She quickly bought a new phone and accepted the lost photos, contacts, and other personal information that had not been backed up.

YouTubing diver

Helkenberg has been snorkeling, swimming and diving for years, but in early 2020 – with extra time after being made redundant – he began to put more effort into searching for lost items in the water , as well as to do garbage cleaning missions. .

Sometimes he goes on a diving mission with friends and his wife. He even started a YouTube channel to document his findings.

Last year, he found over a hundred pairs of sunglasses, 26 cell phones and two GoPro cameras. This year, he has already counted 35 pairs of sunglasses, five phones and a GoPro.

His underwater work even garnered media attention, including a report of 359 kilograms of trash he and his friends removed from Cultus Lake earlier this year.

This week he was at Harrison Lake – the water is a lot shallower now than it was in the summer, and according to Helkenberg, it’s pretty clear. He found a badly damaged flip phone, but Heather Helkenberg noticed Ghodsi’s iPhone.

Heather Helkenberg finds an iPhone 11 in the sediment at the bottom of Harrison Lake. She said it was the first cell phone she had found. (Clayton Helkenberg)

‘He just turned right’

Clayton Helkenberg said he usually put phones in a silica container to dry them out, but lucked out with the iPhone 11s.

“I took it home, cleaned up the dirt and it just lit up, so it was pretty amazing,” he said.

He took out the SIM card, put it in another phone to find the phone number, and got in touch with Ghodsi.

“I was completely in shock at first. It was like a zombie phone coming back to me, because I had totally made my peace with his departure, ”she said.

Ghodsi said the microphone is broken and the speaker looks weird, but everything else is in perfect condition; battery health is still 96%.

She is grateful for the phone’s recovery and was inspired by Helkenberg making the effort to reunite people with lost valuables, without asking for anything in return. But the experience left Ghodsi even more impressed with his job of cleaning up the garbage, saying it was a reminder to keep our water clean.

“It gives me so much hope for the good that exists,” she said.

As for the next time she takes a ride on the bumper boats? Ghodsi said she would leave her phone and valuables on the shore or keep them tidy in a pocket.


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Follow Rafferty Baker on Twitter: @raffertybaker



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