How I found my Lost Samsung Galaxy S3 on Quikr

I must be the (un)luckiest girl on the planet.

Last week I went to meet my friends at a restaurant. It was a long time since we met, which made this moment special for all of us. We had food, and a bit of drinks in between.

We left at around 11 PM, and one of my friend decided to stay over at my place. We talked while on our way home, which was completely fine until I figured out that there is something wrong. I felt lite… all this because I didn’t have my smartphone in the purse.

I was shocked. This is my 4th mobile phone in 5 years, and this one was very close to my heart.

We stood in the middle of the road, looking for my phone — Samsung Galaxy S3. The phone was white in color, so it was easy to spot, I thought. We looked around the place we stood — nothing. Even walking heavily at the end of the road didn’t help. Calling the restaurant in the middle of night was a waste of time — I talked for 20 minutes explaining the problem and they kept saying that the waiters are very honest, blah… blah.

I didn’t want my parents to know about this, partly because they will be furious to know that I lost such an expensive phone. Samsung Galaxy S3 (and even S4) are costly here, and that moment — the fear — bought back all the memories of how I persuaded my dad to buy me this phone for my birthday.

It would be shame if he knew that I misplaced the phone… because we were drunk.

Buying a Secondhand Smartphone

I was always told that Android has many security applications that can trace lost phones. Even mobiles that are stolen could be tracked through GPS. To be honest, I don’t think I had any applications installed on my Galaxy S3, which automatically means that tracing or tracking this phone through my computer was next to impossible.

I could have filed a complaint (FIR) but I had very little time to get into all this. I didn’t even have the IMEI number.

Next day I decided to buy a similar phone, but a used one through some ecommerce website. While I did have some money saved up, I asked my best buddy to lend me some more money. She was fine with it.

Hunt for the Used Galaxy S3 Phone Begins

I consider myself pretty geeky, so I used Google’s advanced search to find a white model of Samsung Galaxy S3 phone (unlocked version, of course) for a cheaper price. For anyone interested, these are the steps to follow:

– Visit Google.com
– Then type the query and hit the search button.
– Use “Search Tools” and refine by “past week.”

You can add your own twist. For instance, you can use the query “Samsung Galaxy S3 in India” (replace India with any place). You can also refine by “past 24 hours.”

When I did this, I was shocked to find a white model of Samsung Galaxy S3 available for sale in my area. This person didn’t post any pics of the smartphone and was selling it for Rs. 10,000 ($200).  The ad was found on Quikr, one of the popular classified site in India.

I quickly registered an account and asked the person to contact me. This “dude” already wrote in the ad page that he found this phone on the street and he is not able to switch it ON (probably because the battery died and he didn’t have a charger, or he was just afraid to keep the phone). Whatever the reason was, I was very happy and at the same time confused.

I mean, is this really my phone? I am not the only person having a white version of Galaxy S3 here. So I went ahead and messaged him to send me a couple of pics. After one hour of waiting, I finally received the pics in my email.

For confirmation, I asked him if there was any case available with the handset. He said there is a black case, but it’s pretty much useless. That’s it, I thought. That’s my phone.

I asked his number on Quikr, then called him. Without missing a beat, I told him it was my phone and I need it back. I really caught him off-guard. He was unprepared for such a response, and he agreed to give it to me upon confirmation.

We met the same day, evening, near his place and had a casual talk. I also bought a charger with me to power up my Galaxy phone. I showed him my contacts, my Facebook profile and also some of my pics from the gallery.

He returned the phone to me. I will never forget this journey!

In return I bought him Pizzas. Oh, and I also made a friend.

Like I said, I am probably one of the luckiest person to have recovered my lost phone.

– Anmol