Fatemeh Ghodsi was skeptical at first when she received a text message from someone saying they found her phone almost six months after she lost it in Harrison Lake.
Ghodsi, who lives in Vancouver, was confused and thought that one of his friends might be playing a trick on her. But she soon became convinced and made a trip to Chilliwack to pick up the phone, which surprisingly still works.
Clayton Helkenberg and his wife Heather found the iPhone 11 lost during a sweep of the lake under the water park on Lake Harrison – part of a hobby that includes discovering a strange treasure, but mostly just lots of trash cleaning.
Ghodsi dropped her phone in the water in early September, during a ride on the shock boats – photos retrieved from the phone show that she was still smiling moments before the accident.
“I was in a situation where I lost my balance and threw it into the water,” she said, adding that the water park team convinced her that it would be impossible to find the phone in deep water.
“Distressed and in tears, we returned to Vancouver with little hope,” said Ghodsi.
She soon bought a new phone and accepted the lost photos, contacts and other personal information that was not backed up.
YouTubing Diver
Helkenberg has practiced snorkeling, swimming and diving for years, but in early 2020 – with extra time on his hands after being fired – he began to put more effort into finding items lost in the water, as well as on garbage-cleaning missions.
Sometimes, he goes on diving missions with friends and his wife. He even started a YouTube channel to document his findings.
Last year, he found more than 100 pairs of sunglasses, 26 cell phones and two GoPro cameras. This year, he has counted 35 pairs of sunglasses, five phones and a GoPro.
His underwater work has even attracted media attention, including a report of 359 kilograms of garbage that he and friends removed from Lake Cultus earlier this year.
This week he was at Lake Harrison – the water is much shallower now than it was in the summer and, according to Helkenberg, it is very clear. He found a severely damaged flip phone, but Heather Helkenberg noticed Ghodsi’s iPhone.
‘Just called’
Clayton Helkenberg said he usually puts phones in a silica container to dry them, but he had good luck with the iPhone 11s.
“I took it home, cleaned up the mess and called immediately, so it was amazing,” he said.
He pulled out the SIM card, put it on another phone to find out the phone number, and contacted Ghodsi.
“I was in total shock at first. It was like a zombie phone came back to me, because I was totally at peace with it being gone,” she said.
Ghodsi said that the microphone is broken and the speaker looks strange, but everything else is in perfect condition; battery health is still at 96 percent.
She is grateful for the recovery of the phone and is inspired by Helkenberg to strive to bring together people with lost values, without asking for anything in return. But the experience left Ghodsi even more impressed with his garbage cleaning work, saying it is a reminder to keep our water clean.
“It gives me a lot of hope for the good that is out there,” she said.
As for the next time she strolls on the stop boats? Ghodsi said she will leave her phone and valuables on the beach or keep them safely in her pocket.
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