One February afternoon, my phone is stolen while I’m working in a cubicle at a local library. Using my laptop, I try to track the phone without success. I lock the phone remotely with the screen displaying contact information with the vague hope that the device will make it back to me.

About six months go by and I’ve accepted that the phone is gone for good. It’s a blistering summer day when my mom tells me that someone just called saying they have my phone and want to return it…