OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – “It still works, after all of that time.”
In June of 2020, Josh Jones went on a kayaking trip with his father at his cousin’s cabin on the Greenbrier River. Jones stopped to check his phone while out on the water. Once he put it away, he wouldn’t see it again on that trip.
“We started floating a little bit farther,” Jones said. “I got way ahead of my dad, so I stopped. I pulled over, I went back to look for my phone. It wasn’t there.”
Kaylee Knapp and her husband were also fishing on the Greenbrier River in the fall. As she was walking upstream, she found a phone down on the river bank.
“I stuck it in my pocket,” Knapp said. “We took it home. I let it dry in my kitchen, so it’s been sitting in my kitchen since probably the end of fall.”
After recently moving, Knapp plugged the phone in on the off-chance that it would work. And it did.
“I said, ‘post it on Facebook,” Knapp said. “‘Let’s see if anyone responds to it.'”
Knapp’s friend posted the following update to Facebook this past Sunday: “I know this is a long-shot, but my friend Kaylee found this phone in the Greenbrier River recently. It’s locked, but the phone still works. If anyone recognizes these kids, please share. We’re looking for the owner.”
Jones was tagged in the post on the day it went up.
“They used the picture, they recognized our kids in the photo,” Jones said. “And that’s how they knew it was our phone.”
The phone was in the mail within 24 hours.
“We found Josh and his wife on Sunday,” Knapp said. “I sent it out on Monday.”
And it was back with its owner on Tuesday.
“I opened it up, plugged it into the charger,” Jones said. “It actually still works eight months later.”
Those country roads brought that phone home.
“This is definitely the West Virginia thing to do,” Knapp said.
“That just takes initiative that they didn’t need to do,” Jones said. “I just can’t be thankful enough.”
