After spending nearly a year underwater at Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, a still working iPhone has been found.
Four Lakes Scuba Club, which does about four cleanup dives a year in the lake as part of its public service, found a working iPhone, among a few other objects, Channel3000 reported.
“We aim for things that are bad for the environment,” said Ellen Evans, president of the club. “I mean things like plastic bags, glasses, plastic bottles, electronics.” However, in addition to furniture, bicycles, stoves and many similar items, the group can sometimes find smartphones that work underwater.
“When we find phones, we always try to charge them. They are not functional most of the time, but sometimes they work,” said Evans, and continued with the sentence “We charged it and turned it on.” The club then handed over this working iPhone to the UW-Madison Police Department.
After examining the phone, the Police Department determined that the owner was Ellie Eisenberg, a recent UW-Madison graduate. Eisenberg said he lost the phone while on a boat with some friends in the summer of 2022.
While the story doesn’t mention the model of the iPhone, it can be guessed to be the iPhone 12 Pro or 13 Pro as it looks like a stainless steel finish.