An iPhone 11 has been discovered under a Harrison lake in Canada by a diving enthusiast, Clayton Helkenberg, and his wife, Heather. They salvaged and cleaned the phone, power it on, and it still works normally. Through the SIM in the phone, they were able to reach the owner and returned the phone.
The name of the owner is Fatemeh Ghodsi, and she lives in Canada, Vancouver to be precise. According to her, she was at the park in September last year to catch some cruise. She even snapped pictures with the phone and the pictures were still in the phone when it was discovered. She was riding a round bumper boat when the smartphone slips from her and fell in the lake.
She did mention that she sought help from staff after she landed ashore, they convinced her that it is impossible to find the phone in deep water. The Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada and it is about 279m deep in its deepest parts. She later went home and bought a new iPhone and restored some of the previous photos, contacts, and other information.
How the diver, Clayton Helkenberg, and his wife were able to reach the owner.
When they discovered the iPhone, they put it in a desiccant filled with silica to dry it and clean up the dirt. After that, the phone successfully turns on, but the speaker is no longer working. However, the phone’s battery is still at 96%. He pulled out the SIM card of the mobile phone and used another mobile phone to read the contacts in the SIM card, and successfully found the owner.
Helkenberg is a great diver and since 2020, he has been diving in the lake and has managed to salvage more than 100 pairs of sunglasses, 26 smartphones, and two GoPro cameras.
This year he has salvaged 35 pairs of glasses, 5 smartphones, and 1 GoPro camera. His purpose of diving in the lake is actually to clean up the trash and debris at the bottom of the lake.
He and his wife even have a Youtube channel dubbed Aquatic Monkey where they record all their activities. The video of the iPhone recovery is also there. The iPhone 11 comes with IP68 waterproof certification. This means that it can withstand water but not for more than 30 minutes at a depth of 2m as was officially stated. While this very iPhone managed to survive 6 months in Harrison Lake, it is not advisable for you to go around dropping your iPhones in the lake.
