might not be a bad idea to file a police report too.

 

Whenever you guys buy a used phone ALWAYS ask the for the ESN number first, its the 11 digit number under the battery. You can call the carrier and they will tell you if the phone was reported lost/stolen or also if its shut off due to unpaid bill.

 

Are you going to tell the person who you are selling it to that it's stolen? And are you sure that aren't breaking some sort of law by knowingly selling stolen goods?

I'd hate for you to the guy who takes the fall on a stolen phone by trying to recover $60. File a police report, try to return it to carrier or just throw it away and be done with it. But that's just me.

 

Great advice Krinkov. I think I will try to find out who it belongs to and return hoping for a reward but not expecting one. We'll see how that goes. I am not going to file a police report and it may not be stolen. It COULD be stolen OR lost. If I do try and sell it if I cannot contact the original owner I will state on the add that it is blacklisted and only for use on Metro PCS after being flashed for Metro.

 

Ya I was going to point that out as well, when a phone is bricked by the carrier they usually don't list it specifically as lost or stolen or unpaid debt, and the most common one is always from being reported lost.

 

People with working consciences. I returned a wallet I found with over $1,700 in it once. Go figure.

 

I sent an email to verizon so maybe they will give me the owners info maybe not. We'll see. I was going to call but I dont feel like being put on hold for 20 min.

 

I doubt they will give u customer info (name and/or number).

You could see if VZ could give the owner your info, and then its in their hands if they want to try and get their phone back

 

That happened to me once.

My Treo died and it was going to be too long for me to wait for a replacement, so I picked one up on CL. I specifically asked the kid if it was lost/stolen/blacklisted and he said no, but wouldn't give me the ESN for fear of hax0rs. Time being of the essence I said screw it , I'm only spending $80. I picked it up from where he lived *just in case*.

I did a backup of the phone, it was on its factory image but still had the previous owners number in it. I went to activate it a few times, and it would not work. Tried all my IT tricks then decided F-it, I'll call Sprint. They let me know the phone was indeed lost/stolen and since I wasn't the owner I couldn't activate it. So I restored the phone to the image from whence I got it, and then called them back with all the pertinent device info. I also called the phones owner to let her know what was up. Her purse was stolen while she was out clubbin in SF, and the phone was in there too.

Then I called the kid and told him he's WAY busted because I have his name, records of him selling stolen property, his address, and courtesy of MySpace...pictures of what he looks like. Told him it was time to give me a refund, or I'm giving all the info over to the victim when I turned the phone back over to her. He tried to play me, so I did just that; the victim paid me back for what I bought the phone for, and she definitely screwed the lil thieves' life up.

 

Wow, You got lucky you found all the information. How did you get the owners information?

 

I quoted the relevant parts in bold. Unless there was an additional step into acquiring a Sprint customer's information other than, "I have their phone, here's the ESN and you can retrieve it after I've recovered the data."

 

As others have said I wouldn't try to sell it and try to contact carrier again. Sometimes they will tell you to return it to them and they can return to previous customer. I personally dont keep what's not mine. Heck when the grocery store gives me extra money back I am honest and give it back to them as I know what a messed up register can cause.

 

When I sell phones, I don't give out the ESN for security reasons. But I do meet the person at a Sprint store and hang with them while they activate it. Never been a problem doing it that way.