Some Guy’s iPhone 4 Survived A Year At The Bottom Of A Lake (Miracles Do Exist, Apparently?)

An iPhone 4 which sat at the bottom of a lake for one whole year was retrieved and nursed back into working condition.

BuzzFeed was the first to report on the incredible story of Pennsylvanian man Michael Guntrum and his iPhone 4. Back in 2015 he went ice fishing, during which time he unfortunately dropped his phone into the icy, cold depths of Kyle Lake. Later that year, the lake was entirely drained.

Fast forward to October 2016, a fellow by the name of Daniel Kalgren was walking around the lake’s basin with a metal detector in hand. Surprise, surprise, he found Mr Guntrum’s iPhone.

Mr Kalgren said the phone was housed in an OtterBox case, but was pretty skeptical that it would have survived at the bottom of a freezing lake through an entire winter.

He took it home with him, gave it a clean, tossed it in some rice, plugged it in and two days later – it turned on.

It actually worked.

Now, if that’s not a testament to the “let it chill in rice overnight” method, I don’t know what is.

“It was the only thing I found that day,” Mr Kalgren told BuzzFeed. “I was able to turn it on and use it to look up his number.” He’ll be mailing the bedraggled phone out to Mr Guntrum.

It’s not every day you get a call from a random stranger saying they’ve found and revived your previously lost and (presumed) dead phone. Mr Guntrum said he’s going to give the phone to his mother.

BuzzFeed managed to snag some photos of the wrecked (but alive) phone.

Apple has used the amazing story as an opportunity to hype up their products. “It never ceases to amaze us, all the incredible iPhone survival stories our customers have shared with us,” a spokesperson told BuzzFeed.

The whole story is pretty much the most perfect publicity opportunity for Apple and OtterBox.

Some people are calling hoax, but hey: That’s just the internet for you.

Photo: iStock and Giphy