Tips for finding a lost cellphone. Step 1: Don't panic

Losing your cellphone is like losing your dog. First you panic. Then you spend a lot of time calling it. Then you feel really alone.

I lost my BlackBerry in March. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was. I was sitting in a pizza joint, eating a salad, looking at the phone to check for new messages. A little while later, I was back at my office and my BlackBerry was nowhere to be found.

I freaked out. This particular BlackBerry had been with me since 2006. In phone years, that's a long time. I had bonded with it as an everyday companion. The modern-day equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, the device went everywhere with me and supplied just about anything I needed, including phone numbers, addresses, maps, driving directions and the Internet.

Admittedly, I'm not much of a tech geek — my information wasn't backed up on Outlook. I really didn’t want to shell out another $200 for a new smartphone. And frankly, I can't stand not being in constant communication. What if I miss an e-mail? What if that long-lost love leaves a message and I miss it?

The rest of my day became all about retracing, remembering and recovering.

I looked under my keyboard, behind my monitor and next to the land-line phone. Searched the floor, my seat, my desk drawers. I dumped out my purse. Rifled through piles of papers, as if the phone was just playing a trick on me and hiding.

When I realized the BlackBerry wasn’t going to turn up there, I decided to be a rational adult and go back to all the places I had just been. I speed-walked the same halls I had just passed through. Used the same elevator to go down to the first floor, even crossed the same crosswalk. I scanned the ground during the one-block walk back to the pizza place.

The shop's manager was kind enough to let me use his own cellphone to call my number. I called. But I heard no ringing. After searching the booth and sticking my hand in between gross, crumb-filled seats, I gave in. The walk back to the office was a sad one.

These devices hold our whole lives. Every old phone number we never memorized, every old photo we looked at daily, every voice mail we wanted to keep. And once the device is lost, so too is our information (unless, of course, we back it up).

This story does not have a happy ending. I did not find my dear old BlackBerry.

But here’s the silver lining: I now own a new iPhone 3G.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you get your phone — and your life — back? Share your story in the comments below. And read after the jump for five simple steps to cellphone recovery.

-- Lori Kozlowski

Kozlowski is a Times staff writer.

Don't Panic button photo by JL2003 via Flickr

Here's what to do if you lose your cellphone:

1. Don't panic. Or at least try not to. Admit you have a problem on your hands, and decide to take action.

2. Look around. Search in the immediate area around you. Look under, behind and below. Don’t forget to check the little places like your pockets. Or underneath the front seat of your car.

3. Call yourself. From a land line or someone else's cellphone, try to call your own number. If you hear it ring or vibrate, you are home free. Let it keep ringing, and follow the noise to find your device. If you hear no ringing or buzzing, move to Step 4.

4. Retrace your steps. Go back to the last three or four places you remember having your phone. You might try asking kind strangers in the area if they’ve seen a lost phone.

5. Start over. If that doesn’t work, you can choose to wait a few hours to see if your phone turns up. Just know that in the hours that you wait, someone could already be using your phone to make calls. After a few hours (or a few days, if you can go that long without a phone), be sure to notify your wireless provider that your phone has been lost or stolen. The company will shut off your device so that no one can make calls or send messages from it.

Here are numbers of common providers: 

AT&T: (800) 331-0500

Verizon Wireless: (800) 922-0204

Sprint Nextel (888) 211-4727

T-Mobile: (877) 453-1304

Comments

[Ontario Emperor]

If you're going to lose a phone, lose it at the Islands in Montclair. I still suspected that our phone was somewhere in our house, so I called it early one morning - and got an answer from an Islands employee who had taken it home and left it on, hoping that someone would call. We got it back later that day.

[EILEEN HOOD]

HOW DO IGO ABOUT FINDINGMY CELL IT IS IN MY HOUSE BUT I CALL IT AND GOES TO VOICEMAIL SO HOW DO FIND IT NOW?

[CHoff]

Been there done that. What EVERYONE needs to do is visit www.WimpIt.com

On this site you can register your phone's IMEI/ESN number, and if its misplaced, the finder can locate you by inputting your IMEI/ESN number and getting your email address.

Its simple, cheap and easy. And it really helped me out before so now I tell all my friends. Losing pics, numbers, and the phone itself is hell. So WimpIt before it's too late!!!

Cheers.

[Charlie]

Rewarding Return is my favorite way to get lost stuff back - most importantly my cell phone.

Their recovery labels go on the back of your phone and say "REWARD IF RETURNED" So there's a nice incentive for the finder to report it found through the website.

Then Rewarding Return even pays all shipping costs to get it back to you. I've lost my phone twice already, and hand it back in my hands both times within a couple days. It really works!! xD

Check it out: www.RewardingReturn.com

[Joe]

I just lost my cell phone while hiking in the woods.

Logically I follow all of the steps you listed and I was not able to find in time before the thunderstorm last night :(

These devices really do mean a lot to people and in this day and age you need to be in the communications loop. I lost over 500 memorable pictures, an SD card, and hundreds of contacts. I'm definitely going to try to back up my stuff now.

In the end I'm going to get a new phone, the same one I fell in love with. A new SCH-u740 dual flip phone :) Old memories and contacts can be lost, but starting over fresh and new is a good change I suppose, especially from other past experiences.

[mariah]

My story is very frustrating. This happened to me just yesterday! Junior prom is in a week and i didnt even have a dress so i went shopping at the mall for a dress and shoes. Well i sit down in a store called deb to try on some shoes and my pink tmobile motorola rizr.. slipped out of my pocket without me knowing onto the bench. I went to the next store and went to look for my phone in my purse, pocket bra, anywhere! wasnt there. I was a tiny bit freaked out but i was like oh.. i probably just dropped it in deb. So i ran back down there, i had been gone only about 5 minutes. i asked if anyone around the shoes section had seen it they said no. the girl at the counter said she saw it on the bench just a minute ago but didnt bother to pick it up!!!!!!!!!! Then it was gone. no one knew where it was. i called and called but they immediately turned the phone off. meaning.. they have absolutely NO intentions of returning it. So we sent a few texts from my moms phone to return it but i know they wont. Then i got my number taken off that sim card and put onto a new onel yes i do have a really expensive new amazing phone but.... first of all it ticks me right the hell off that someone would do something like that! its not like they found money or something which you should return anyways, but this is my most personal item i own! i have my phone numbers from when i was 13 on there! my alarms set just how i need them, homework, my plans for every week. EVERYTHING IS ON THAT PHONE. including some things of myself that i would rather the world and some mean stranger see! very very very personal things. so yes, i am freaking out. and yes, i am pissed off! I am determinded to find this phone even though it doesnt look to hopeful. All i have to say is dishonest people, go to hell.

[Henry Griner]

I had the same thing happened to me. I lost my cellphone and felt lost half my life because I did not backup my phone numbers, my photos, my games, my everything in it. Guess this is a lesson learned to always backup your precious data.

Tip: If your phone is small and light enough, buy a necklace or strap or whatever you call it and then hang your CP like pendant on your neck. You'll surely never loose a phone again.

[sean]

i lost mine in my house, and its dead. ive torn my house apart, and i still cant find it. is there a gps locator i can type my phone number in and have it show me where it is?

[Britton]

Hi There,
Sorry to bother you, but I have just lost my cell phone, and i know its in the House. I remember having it when i got out of the car and going upstairs to my room. But, heres the catch.. its off. I cant spend any money on phone tracking websites my parents tell me, so what should i do now? It has been lost for about 3 days now.
Thanks so much,
Britton :]