With the help of police and the Global Positioning System, a Saanich man was able to find his missing smartphone on Monday.
The man had misplaced his phone on Sunday and was monitoring its movement around town with the use of an application called Find My iPhone. The application uses a GPS to track the device while it is in use.
He was not sure if the phone was stolen or lost, only that it was on the move in Saanich.
With the help of police, the phone was tracked to a truck belonging to Organico Waste Recovery Systems.
“It’s interesting that the officers were being updated with the info as the truck was moving around,” said Saanich police spokesman Sgt. Steve Eassie.
The truck was located and stopped. It was loaded with several bins of compost. To find the phone, the search team moved each bin and watched the application online. They were able to track the bin the phone was in by its movement.
The phone was found in the compost, undamaged, and returned to its owner.
The man had accidentally tossed the phone in the recycling along with a tray of refuse while dining at Big Wheel Burger in Cook Street Village .
“We get a lot of missing and stolen cellphone calls and can’t always easily intervene,” said Eassie, who added that locator apps can help.
