iPhone Lost in Oklahoma Grain Elevator Turns Up 8 Months Later in Japan

Kevin Whitney, a farmer in Oklahoma, thought he'd lost his iPhone forever when it tumbled out of his pocket and into the grain elevator he was working over last fall. "I thought, 'I'll never see that phone again,'" Whitney told KFOR. But somehow the phone survived being packaged up with several tons of grain and being trucked and sailed all the way to Kashima, Japan, where a worker in a grain mill found it — eight months later.

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Whitney got a call recently asking if he'd lost a phone, and shortly after that the device was shipped back to him. Amazingly, it still worked — after being charged for a bit, of course — and all its contents, including some invaluable photos of his daughter's wedding, were still intact. Whitney was pleased and amazed: "What really shocked me about it all, though, when I first got the phone call, was what a small world it is."

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

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Farmer's Lost Phone Circles The Globe

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— Devin Coldewey, NBC News