If there is one thing that all of us have on us at all times, it is our smartphones. Some people have an android and other people use Apple, but in any case, a smart device is rarely ever far from our side.
That is why it really isn’t a surprise that a paddleboarder in the UK had her iPhone with her when she was out in the ocean. Unfortunately, she dropped the phone and thought it was lost at sea forever.
According to Wales Online, 39-year-old Claire Atfield explained that she never expected to see the phone again. Even if she did find it, she didn’t expect it to work but 460 days later, it’s back in her hands and working like a charm.
It all started on August 4, 2021, when she was paddleboarding off the coast of Havant, Hampshire. She fell into the water and her phone disappeared into the watery deep. She said that she always wore it around her neck but after she lost it, she just got back on her board and kept going.
According to Wales Online, she also said: “It was quite far out to sea, but it was inside one of those phone protection cases which came with my paddleboard, so it must have sank and just stayed there.”
She didn’t spend much time thinking about the phone and just thought it was lost forever. On November 7, however, a local dog walker found the phone on the beach and called her. It wasn’t very far from where she had lost it at sea.
The person who found the phone could identify the owner because there was a medical card and bank card in the case. The Good Samaritan used the information to track her down.
Atfield said that it worked perfectly, even though it had been underwater for so long. She went on to say: “The gentleman who found it and I were both just in shock that it still worked. The back of the phone is completely smashed, so you would have thought water would have got in.”
She feels that it was able to survive underwater for so long because it was in a waterproof bag. Otherwise, it likely would have been gone for good.