Featured Image Credit: @ManPlusRiver/YouTube
Lazing down a river on a hot day can be about as chilled-out as any activity gets.
It comes with risks, though - especially if you're trying to use your phone while you sit on an inflatable or a boat.
As proved by the YouTube channel Man + River in a video from early 2023, people lose electronics, from phones to cameras, in these circumstances all the time.
It's easy to drop your phone by accident and lose it forever in the murky depths of a river, so he set out to put things right for people.
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Dressed in scuba gear and armed with a metal detector, he combed the riverbed for lost items, and found a remarkable haul of stuff, coming out to around $10,000 worth - according to his estimates.
It's pretty amazing how often he's able to pull phones out of the weeds at the bottom of the river, including some that were dropped in waterproof bags, which is fairly ironic.
After blitzing past his personal record by finding more than six phones in one dive, he took them home to dry them out in the hopes of being able to return them to their owners.
Impressively, half of the eight phones he recovered were able to charge up when he plugs them in, a reminder that phones are now more water-resistant than ever.
In particular, the iPhones he plugs in seem to work reliably, and it's amazing to discover that some of them aren't even locked, making it easy to find who they belong to.
He leaves a series of voicemails on the numbers associated with those phones, and in a few cases even manages to get hold of the owner by FaceTime to arrange a return of the device.
They're all amazed to learn that the devices they thought were lost forever could be back in their hands soon, and it's a nice demonstration of how a little effort can stop electronic waste from clogging up our rivers (and landfills).
Needless to say, people are amazed by the dedication and generosity shown by the channel owner, whose real name is Dallas, and the comments under the video are full of praise.
In fact, the top comment under the video is from one of the phone owners who managed to get their device back, who said: "Hey that's me! Thanks so much Dallas for reuniting me with my phone after 9 months in the river. Great vid!"
Another impressed viewer commented: "I love that you put in so much effort to return phones to their owners. Love your videos."
