This kid achieved Facebook stardom for refusing to take a reward for finding a missing iPhone
We’re so emotionally attached to our smart phones that it’s hard to imagine ever losing it, which is why it is THE PANIC when we do. Who will babysit our Facebooks feed if we’re not there?! But as much as losing a phone blows, this story about a boy who refused to take a reward for reuniting a girl with her lost phone shows us that even the suckiest times are opportunities for us to see just how great humans can be to each other.
A few weeks ago, 16-year-old Shaunnah Hickinbottom left her cell phone on a train in Birmingham, England. In most circumstances, that is about where the story would end—the phone would be picked up by some faceless stranger, probably stripped down to its blank state, and never seen again. Fortunately for Hickinbottom (and for all of our feels), her phone was rescued by none other than 12-year-old Josh Brown, who picked up the phone immediately when Hickinbottom’s mother called in an attempt to retrieve it.
Brown left it in a ticket office for her, and when Hickinbottom insisted he leave his address so that she could send him a reward, instead the note he left said this:
The mother and daughter told the Daily Mail that the letter left them “choked,” and that they immediately began a social media campaign to find her phone’s rescuer. Soon after their post, a friend of Josh’s mother got in touch with his family and asked if he had found a phone—the story had gone so viral without their knowing that his name had spread all over in an effort to find him.
Josh told the Mirror, “My dad always says ‘What goes around comes around’ and if I lost my phone I would like to think someone would do the same to me.”
As for Hickinbottom, she is still overwhelmed with gratitude, and took to heart his advice to pay it forward: She cleaned her grandmother’s house and donated to a cat sanctuary. So the next time you lose your phone, perk up! You may have just helped make the world a better place.
(Images via here.)
