Pricey cellphone, carted off by garbage truck, is recovered at landfill

Written byJENS MANUEL KROGSTAD
Allison Peterson’s heart sank last week when she discovered her lost iPhone was in the bowels of a garbage truck zigzagging through her Waukee neighborhood.

While her phone’s GPS chip helped her locate the lost device, it was the kindness of the trash collectors that got the phone back into her hands.

The tale begins on Friday, when Peterson couldn’t find the iPhone she had had for about six months. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it most likely had fallen out of her pocket and into an old green recycling bin she had tossed.

Peterson, 39, had the foresight to download a free “Find My iPhone” app to her computer. She clicked on the app and then watched as the blip moved through her neighborhood.

She quickly dashed out of her house to track down the garbage truck. When she found the truck, driver Brent Klaassen stopped his route and called the phone, which later was discovered to have had its ringer turned off.

Klaassen then offered to let Peterson look for the phone at the landfill. While Peterson turned her nose up at that idea, she did call her husband, Mark, to see if he would sift through the trash.

“Once she told me that it would cost around $700 to replace the phone, I said I’d drive up and see what I could do,” said Mark Peterson, who with his wife, has five children.

Several workers for Metro Waste Authority and Waste Management helped Mark Peterson search for the phone Friday, a frigid day.

“The actions of these folks saved me a large amount of money, got me some brownie points with my wife … and made me appreciate how people who didn’t even know me, had nothing to gain, and probably thought I was crazy, took the time to help,” Mark Peterson, 46, wrote in a two-page thank-you letter.

Klaassen and his co-workers have been through similar situations. In their business, people sometimes call in a panic about lost diamond rings, wallets and other valuables.

What made this situation unique is that the owner immediately located her phone through the GPS chip. This gave Klaassen time to separate the trash from the rest of the landfill, said Reo Menning, spokeswoman for Metro Waste Authority.

“If this had been dumped with all the other trucks delivering the garbage, there’s no way this would have been found,” she said.

On the second pass through the pile of trash with a bulldozer, the men spotted the old green recycling bin.

The workers unfolded the container, which had been flattened by the trash compactor, and found the iPhone. The screen was free of scratches and cracks, though there was a slight bend in the body of the phone.

Mark Peterson, by this time giddy with joy, picked up the phone and dialed his wife.

“I found it,” he said.


Article from http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120125/NEWS/301250051/-1/becker_trial/Pricey-cellphone-carted-off-by-garbage-truck-recovered-landfill