Man discovers phone at bottom of river which still works after months underwater
A diver who found a Samsung phone 10ft deep at the bottom of a river discovered it still works despite being underwater for two months - and has reunited it with its owner.
Dallas Rowluy was diving in a river in Hill Country, Texas, US, in September last year, when he originally stumbled across the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The 34-year-old brought the phone, worth around £1,200, to the surface but was left disappointed when it didn't turn on after he plugged it in. However in July this year Dallas used a different charger in an attempt to get the device to work and it lit up.
The full-time diver managed to trace the owner of the phone - named Mark - using the sim card and sent him a text explaining that he'd found the Samsung.
The 34-year-old found the phone which is worth around £1,200 (Kennedy News and Media)A shocked Mark Facetimed him within minutes of receiving the text and Dallas recorded the interaction.
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A video that has racked up more than 200,000 likes shows Mark explaining that he lost a white Samsung one year ago and shouting 'no f***ing way' as Dallas shows him the working phone.
Dallas also caught the moment the pair met up on camera and Mark describes the incident as 'insane'. Mark made the four-hour trip from Forth Worth, Texas, to reunite with his lost phone and Dallas says he'd never seen a person so 'appreciative'.
Dallas found the Samsung found 10ft deep at the bottom of the river (Kennedy News and Media)
Dallas showed Mark his lost phone on FaceTime (Kennedy News and Media)Dallas, from Austin, Texas, US, said: "It was underwater for two months. I held onto it for almost a year but it didn't work. Ten months later I got a new charger so I thought I'd try it on some of the old phone and this one turned right on.
"It's one of the better phones that I've found that didn't work. I got the number off the sim and he facetimed me off his relatives iPhone.
"He had the best reaction. He was the most appreciative, thankful, blown away and enthusiastic person I'd ever met. He drove all the way over to me. It was a special moment. He was the most grateful person ever. I think he wanted to show up and show his appreciation."
Mark had dropped his phone while tubing - riding on a doughnut-shaped inner tube - in July 2022 and despite the phone being submerged in water for two months, he was able to start using it again the day after it was returned to him.
Mark and Dallas met up so that he could be reunited with the phone (Kennedy News and Media)Dallas said: "He was tubing down the river. He was dj'ing [playing music on his phone] and he took the phone out of the case and the phone slipped in the water. He'd been using his relatives loan iPhone for the past year. He started using it again the day after."
Dallas has been diving since 2016 and estimates he's found more than 150 phones in different rivers, managing to return around half of them to their original owner.
He said: "I find a lot of phones because people go tubing and get drunk. A lot of the phones I find don't work so I usually don't go to the trouble of finding the owner unless the phone does work.
Dallas Rowluy was diving in a river in Hill Country, Texas, US, in September last year (Kennedy News and Media)"Most of the time people are a little sceptical about how I got their number but when I explain it to them, they're usually very appreciative especially if they have photos on there that they didn't have backed up.
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"I've had some really special moments when returning phones. Some phones are in a waterproof pouch so can stay underwater for years and still work because they're dry. The longest is around two to three years."
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