Open all your presents and can’t find your phone? Check your opened boxes before burning or disposing

One of the rituals after a holiday filled with gift giving and receiving is cleaning up lots of crumpled up wrapping paper, and a bunch of empty boxes.

For Marissa, visiting her family in upstate New York, Christmas was just such an occasion. With mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews on hand, a grand time was had by all and the gift giving was generous.

As festivities concluded, Marissa placed her iPhone down to say good-bye to her niece and nephew for the evening. Exhausted from the day’s activities, she retired for the evening. The next morning, she went to retrieve her phone and could not find it anywhere.

Marissa thought that it might have fallen into one of the empty boxes, though her family did not think so. Besides, in this neck of the woods, people often have burn pits for some paper or corrugated waste, and the living room had long since been cleaned up with the empties set ablaze.

On the off-chance that maybe Marissa’s phone got taken out with the trash, they sifted through some ashes from the fire, and lo-and-behold they found it, nice and crispy.

The device is obviously a total loss, but Marissa did not let the crunchy ashes of her former iPhone dampen her spirit too much. A trip to the AT&T store and she got herself a new iPhone, with which, she shared some pictures of her well-cooked former device.

Get Visible as low as $20/mo for 1 year. Limited time offer with code: FRESHSTART

$20 /mo

$25

$5 off (20%)

Offer Ends 6.1.2026 at 11.59pm ET. New members get $5/mo off the $25/mg Visible plan, $35/mo Visible+ plan, or $45/mo Visible+ Pro plan for the first 12 months. Promo code FRESHSTART required at checkout.

Buy at Visible