An 84-year-old retired teacher stumbled upon a dusty flip phone in the Arizona desert – and against all odds, it powered back on after spending a decade exposed to heat, cold, and storms.
Katie Elkin found the battered Samsung Gusto 2 while exploring near Prescott, Arizona, in late 2025. The phone, released in 2012, was lying open in the scrub, its exterior worn from years of exposure to harsh desert conditions, according to a report by CNET.
Curious, Elkin took the phone home and searched through her collection of old cables until she found a compatible charger. To her surprise, the phone began charging and eventually powered on, revealing messages and contacts belonging to its original owner.
Using the phone’s text messages and saved contacts, Elkin began piecing together clues. She identified the owner as a woman named Maddie, who had worked at a café and had family connections in Chicago. By reverse-searching phone numbers stored in the device, Elkin eventually located Maddie’s father and left a voicemail.
Just ten minutes later, Maddie herself returned the call.
The mystery was solved. Maddie confirmed she had lost the phone in 2015 while hiking in the exact area where Elkin discovered it. She had assumed it was gone forever.
Courtesy: CNET
Remarkably, the phone survived nearly ten years outdoors through freezing winters, scorching summers, rain, and snow. Despite its age and environmental exposure, its internal components remained functional enough to boot up and preserve years-old data.
The discovery highlights how durable older mobile phones could be, especially simpler devices like flip phones. Unlike modern smartphones, which often rely on fragile glass displays and sealed designs, older models were built with fewer vulnerable components.
Elkin contacted Samsung to share the story, impressed by the phone’s resilience. Maddie, meanwhile, chose not to reclaim the device, leaving Elkin with a rare piece of technological endurance—and a mystery successfully solved.