Ice Fisher's iPhone 4 Survives 18 Months In An Icy Lake

At this point in time, many of us live a big part of our lives through our phones. Depending on what we've got inside of them, the thought of suddenly losing our phones can be worrying. So many of us go to great lengths to protect them and wince at every fall or rainy day when we're caught unprepared.

But of course, there are some things you really can't prepare for. And while there are steps we can take when our phones are under attack, sometimes it's pretty obvious that it's not coming back.

Or is it so obvious? 

One Pennsylvania man had good reason to think his phone was done for, but an unexpected turn of events honestly has me rethinking what some phones are really capable of.

SHARE this and let anyone who's lost their phone know that they don't have to give up hope.

Michael Guntrum apparently didn't have a very good ice fishing trip.

When he headed up to Kyle Lake in March 2015, he didn't end up keeping any of his catch because they had small gills. As if that weren't enough, something happened within the first hour that soured the whole experience.

As he told his Facebook friends, his iPhone 4 slipped through the hole he made in the ice. 

From there, it could only sink to the bottom of the freezing cold lake. Normally, that's where our story would end, but it's really just getting started.

The wheels of this surprise started turning back in September 2015.

That was when the lake was drained and the phone was left resting somewhere in its basin. Still, it's not like anyone could ever find it, right?

Well, it took about a year, but someone finally did.

Mechanical engineer Daniel Kalgren was walking along the basin with a metal detector and came across the phone secured in an OtterBox case. He said it was the only thing he found that day, so he brought it home and started trying to clean it.

After spending months underwater and about a year exposed to the elements, any attempt to fix it would seem pretty hopeless, wouldn't it?

Despite the odds, Kalgren pressed on anyway and submerged the phone in rice.

This trick has worked for me too, but that was just for a drop in the toilet, not a total flooding at the bottom of a lake. You'd think it would take a lot more than rice to undo this kind of damage.

Amazingly, the phone actually turned on two days later.

When Apple representatives heard about this, they said, "It never ceases to amaze us, all the incredible iPhone survival stories our customers have shared with us."

And since it still worked, Kalgren had a unique opportunity.

He was able to find Guntrum's number and let him know his phone survived.

At last report, Kalgren was in the process of mailing it to him.

There's no way Guntrum could have ever expected to be reunited with his phone.

Apparently, he's planning on giving it to his mother.

Don't forget to SHARE this and let your friends know that persistence pays off.

h/t Gizmodo