Phone Store Workers Share the Most Strange Things They’ve Found On A Customer’s Phone

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Working as a phone repair technician is never boring. You think you’re dealing with a simple case of a broken battery, the next thing you know, tons of tiny black ants crawl out from the inside of the device.

Oh, and this is not even that bad compared to other things that some workers had found on their customers’ phones. These Reddit users revealed the most insane, bizarre, and creepy things they saw while fixing a phone. Prepare to be disturbed!

The FBI

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One guy came in saying his phone had caught a bug, and he couldn’t unlock it. We had to give him a replacement phone because the bug he had on his phone was somehow linked to the FBI.

As we later learned, his cellphone helped them to locate the source. (We actually received a letter from the FBI in which they thanked us for our service). It was indeed, strange.

Oops!

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One customer came in complaining that his 16GB phone had gotten very slow. While checking it out, we realized that 13GBs of the phone’s space was devoted solely to Grindr.

When we told him about it, he just smiled and left.

A CockRoach

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I was fixing a customer’s phone, and as I was removing his case, I saw a desiccated cockroach there. Seriously, what?

That day, I came back home with my lunch untouched for obvious reasons, lol. I think I might be scarred for life. 

Wheel Inside The Screen

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I think the strangest thing I’ve ever seen was an actual piece of a vehicle’s wheel stuck in a cellphone’s screen.

The customer explained that while he was inflating the tire, it explored, and a piece of it flew right into his phone, which was in his left breast pocket. It saved his life.

Ants Inside The Phone

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Once I opened a customer’s phone only to see tons of small ants inside. Most of them were already dead.

I don’t know how they got in there, and something tells me it was probably on purpose. So gross…

Tinder Trouble

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This young man came in with his girlfriend claiming we sold him a used phone. It wasn’t true, so when I asked him why he thought so, he told me because the phone already had Tinder on it.

I guess his photos automatically appeared on the app too. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life before. 

The True Reason

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When I just started working, I learned that when a customer comes in with a wet phone, there’s a 90% chance that it was dropped in the toilet. I had so many cases like that.

The worst of all is that no one ever tells me why their phone is wet until I’m already holding it in my hands. Now, I have a box of gloves next to my desk.

Secret Smoking Base

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I think the most memorable photo I’ve ever seen on a customer’s phone was a secret smoking base. There was a lounge with chairs for hanging out and many plants growing in different life stages.

He’s lucky the cops haven’t seen this secret homemade dispensary. 

Awkward…

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One time a girl came in saying she had problems saving photos on her SD card. As I was double-checking to make sure whatever I transferred got saved, I noticed her a photo of her doing some pretty crazy things with a soda glass bottle.

It was extremely uncomfortable because I went out to eat with my girlfriend just the night before, and this girl was our waitress.

Wait, What?

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This gorgeous girl came in to transfer pictures to her new phone from the old one. I had a feeling I might see some intimate images she didn’t want anyone to see (this happens all the time), but no.

Instead, I saw about 100 pictures of all kinds of poo in the same toilet. 

Crazy Lady

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Once I had a customer convincing me her that her ex-boyfriend hacked her phone. To block the signals, she would put it in the oven when she wasn’t using it.

One day she forgot it inside the oven while she was baking and blamed it all on me. I’m still confused about the whole thing. 

Everything Was Fine Until…

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One time I was helping a girl and her mother with a cellphone/laptop issue. There was nothing complicated, so we fixed it pretty quickly. To make sure everything was running smoothly, we did a test run.

They were chatting and laughing while the photos were transferring from her cellphone to her computer. Then, suddenly, a bunch of steamy content started popping up. The mother started yelling at her daughter, and it got pretty serious. 

Not So “Business Partner”

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My coworker was helping a customer who came in with his business partner to transfer some photos from his cellphone to his laptop. The entire time he complained to his business partner about his wife, saying how awful she was and that she had recently left him without any reason.

Judging by the photos, his business partner was way more than just that—no wonder why his wife left him. 

Poor Boy

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Once I was fixing this guy’s phone, and as soon as I finished, his stepson asked him if he could borrow the phone. Before he could say anything, the boy took the phone and unlocked it. The phone’s lock screen was a revealing photo of his mother.

As soon as he realized what it was, he handed the phone back to him and walked out of the store without saying a word. 

Suspicious Customer

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I had a suspicious-looking man come in to get his completely destroyed phone fixed.

His texts revealed everything he has been selling and also the fact that his kids were about to be taken away from him by the state.

So Gross

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Way too many people look up illnesses on Google and forget to close the page after.

They mostly search for the ones you get in the bedroom, and I always make sure to wash my hands after I’m done fixing their phones. 

We Couldn’t Save It

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A customer came in wanting to save his cellphone that was chewed by a 173-pound Alaskan Timberwolf. I knew this had happened because I could see the dog sitting in his car.

Sadly, we couldn’t fix his phone. 

Skittles Inside The Phone

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Once I was fixing a phone where a customer smashed a green Skittle into its battery during a party. He forgot that ever happened, and the Skittle stuck to the battery, which caused it to break.

I wasn’t able to fix it. 

She Had The Time Of Her Life

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Once a regular customer came to visit us and was telling us how much fun she had on her trip to Hawaii. She showed us a bunch of photos and happened to scroll forward a little too much because the next thing we know, we are watching a video of her and a huge Hawaiian guy doing god knows what.

It was very loud too. We haven’t seen her since. 

Horses Everywhere

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My sister, who works as a phone tech, was fixing a phone and found photos of many different horses in strange positions with random people next to them.

When the customer noticed her looking at them, he laughed and said, “You must see a lot of weird stuff with this job.”

Wasn’t Expecting That

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I was fixing this guy’s phone, and it started to ring. His ringtone was the sound of a woman moaning, and it kept getting louder and louder.

The man ran to the bathroom and hid because he was so embarrassed that the whole store just heard his girlfriend, wife, or whoever.

One Of My Customers Was A Pimp

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I think one of my customers was a pimp because as I was fixing his phone, different women started calling him one after another every 2 minutes or so.

Each of the numbers was saved as that person’s specialty. 

What A Creep

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One time I had to deal with someone who came back because his problem didn’t get solved the day before. I unlocked his phone and saw photos of me from the previous day.

It was so creepy. After he asked for my number, I reported him to the authorities. 

Construction Worker Does Cheerleading

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So this construction worker comes in to get his phone fixed. As we are checking his cellphone, we come across a video of him roleplaying as a college cheerleader along with several others.

It was really odd.

I’m Still Confused

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One really muscular gym owner came in to get his daughter a new cellphone. As I was showing the girl our latest models, her dad took her old phone and started scrolling through her camera roll.

He saw everything, and she didn’t seem to care or ask him why he was doing that in the first place. 

There’s Always That One Customer

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One creepy man would always come in and set a picture of his genitals as his home screen so that my female coworker would see it.

He did this two times. Then, we called the cops. 

A Catfish

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An older man once came in because he wasn’t able to send photos on his phone. I checked his memory and found tons of stock photos that he had saved from dating apps.

The poor man was getting catfished and didn’t even know it. 

Simply Disgusting

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A customer came in, claiming his phone was very slow. I checked his storage and realized most of his phone’s space was taken up by videos. I opened one video and immediately regretted it.

That’s when I realized why his phone was so sticky. 

No Shame

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I had a man come in to fix some issues with his cellphone. His home screen was a photo of him and his wife naked in bed.

The guy didn’t even care when he gave me the phone. 

It Doesn’t Surprise Me Anymore

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After some time, I was no longer surprised by how many men have photos of their wives set as their home screen.

I’m not talking about just selfies and stuff like that, but some women are captured in positions that no one should see them in.

My Crazy Experience

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This one customer smashed his phone’s screen during a heated argument and demanded that we fix it. He didn’t just want us to replace the screen; he wanted us to fix his current broken one, which was smashed to bits.

When we told him this wouldn’t be possible, he dropped it on the floor and peed on it. 

Toilet Problem

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Honestly, I don’t know what it is with people taking selfies in the toilet. I had one customer come in, and his cellphone was filled with photos of him sitting in different toilets.

I really don’t understand what’s the point. 

Strange Virus

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A customer came in one day complaining about a virus. We said okay, we’ll take a look. Turns out, the instant you press the power button to turn it on, the phone is completely locked up, and you cannot avoid looking at a slideshow of very graphic CP.

We gave him a temporary replacement phone, contacted Verizon to send this guy a new phone, and contacted the FBI to let them know of this virus.

Melontastic

A Dealer

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I had a drug dealer return a phone without deleting any of their texts. They sold pills—some sort of slang for hydrocodone.

The worst part was, he was also texting their baby mama about being sad that the state took their kids from them.

jackrack1721

That’s Awkward 

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It’s surprising how many dudes keep photos of naked women as their home screen…It’s also a little awkward to be working with a couple.

Check the guy’s phone to make sure his pictures transferred, and you see a whole album of his wife butt-ass naked, and then you have to sit there across from her for the rest of the transaction…

meech7607

Sugar Daddy

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Worked at AT&T, and we would have this older gay man come in. He always had young gay “boyfriends” he was more of a sugar daddy. He would always get the new iPad and iPhone when they came out. He would say things like, “This one is for my Spanish boy.”

Well, one time, I was transferring photos and checked to make sure they transferred. The first photo was him naked on the bed.

h0sti1e17

When I Worked At Verizon

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Not Apple, but Verizon. People would leave their phones and go to do other shopping while we transferred data and such. I had a co-worker who had 100% accuracy when guessing if someone would have naked pictures of themselves.

It became a game fairly quickly.

uhobi

That One Time

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I’ve seen some weird shit before. One time someone FaceTimed one of the iPads I was cleaning. Another specialist and I answered it. It was a big Hispanic lady with a shirt not entirely covering all of her belly.

I informed her that she called a demo iPad (someone clearly logged in with their Apple ID). She asked if we still wanted to talk. We didn’t.

superthrowaway1984

Just A Selfie

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Not at Apple, but I work for Sprint. Some guy managed to take a picture of himself without his shirt on with a store phone. He didn’t send it, just took it.

Somehow we didn’t notice, but I know it was taken there because the rest of the store was in the background.

zerokrug

Someone Was Not Feeling It

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I went through the iMessages on one of the store iPhones. Someone was sending really nasty, mean texts to someone they obviously didn’t like using an anonymous number.

If you’re going to be an asshole, at least own up to it.

therabbitheart

Nic Cage

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Some guy, who we have never caught, comes in every other week or so and puts Nic Cage’s face on every iPad and iPad Mini in the store… I don’t know who he is, and I hate him for making my job harder…

But damn, I respect him.

Dylcan

No Left Turns 

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This lady wants me to carry her computer out to her car. Okay, we do that except that it has to be on the parking structure, so I’m not gone for 6 hours. So I ask her to park there, and she says she can’t “because I can’t turn left.”

As in, this lady NEVER makes left turns in her car. She’s the Zoolander of drivers. She admitted she was crazy.

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Some Customers Are Too Much

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I was talking to a guy who worked at an Apple store once, and he told me that multiple times every day, people ask if they can charge their BlackBerries in the store.

TheMightyRasputin

That Was Funny

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A guy comes in and tells me his phone is broken. I look at it for about two minutes before realizing that he took a screenshot of his home screen and set it to his wallpaper.

He was pretty pissed that he drove so long to have me figure that out!

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I’ll Never Forget This Day

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Way back when there was a jailbreak exploit that you could do just by going to a website, some kids came in and jailbroke every iOS device in the store. That was a fun night of re-imaging every device in the store.

Just FYI, re-imaging takes FOREVER. I wasn’t pleased.

geekgirl88

How Is That Even Possible?

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I worked for an AT&T retailer. Once a lady went in to upgrade her phone, completely ordinary transaction until I opened her phone’s battery cover.

Some little spiders streamed out, and around the battery, there was a bundle of cobwebs or a spider sac.

bleucheez

So Awkward 

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Every once in a while this young guy comes to help my dad with the family computer, and every single time we log into my user something weird pops up.

Last time, it was an image of Beyonce with Robert Pattinson’s face cropped in…

Ahimsa444

Spoiler

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Pretty much all of my experiences are similar to what’s been posted already.

Still, there was one time I was cleaning and resetting all of the iOS devices after closing, and someone had set the background on all of them to a screenshot of a note that spoiled the end of Man of Steel the day after it came out.

Summeree

Always The Same

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I work for a cell phone company fixing phones.

I can second that I have seen the rudest crudest grossest pics/videos/texts in my life on people’s phones, tablets, and laptops.

iJMorgan

Thank God It Wasn’t For Real

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Not an employee, but my brother once had an employee help move pictures from one phone to another and saw a picture of someone casually stabbed in the chest with a stick, all bloody and stuff.

It was actually just really good makeup for a first aid course on a dude who had a chest cavity thing so we could actually stick the stick inside his chest slightly and fill it with fake skin. But yeah, awkward.

Ukrainian Girls

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I once had a customer with a Tablet that had over 100 tabs open on Chrome, and at least half of them were something along the lines of “beautiful Ukrainian girls.”

I Was Surprised 

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This guy’s wallpaper was his topless wife that I had to see on his old phone and the new one I did the transfer on.

He was in his early 70s.

Doesn’t Surprise Me Anymore

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I was a store manager for 5 years.

The amount of sweet innocent-looking women cheating on their partners is immense.

Baby Spiders

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I used to repair phones for Sprint. Farmer-looking dude rolled in with a Treo-600 that wouldn’t work.

Opened it up to find many baby spiders inside with some egg sacs left.

What A Creep

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Not me, but my friend. She saw pictures of herself on the costumer’s phone.

She reported it to her boss, and the guy was investigated and turned out he’d been taking pictures of “working girls”, as he called it, for a while.

Still Shocked

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I had a customer bring in a Samsung phone a couple of years back with a flat head screwdriver wedged on the side of his phone, complaining that the back cover wouldn’t come off…

Yeah, we politely explained how internal batteries work and sold him a new one.

What A Guy…

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Had an older man come in with a flip phone. He said his wallpaper was “broken.” Well, the wallpaper was a blurry pic of what appeared to be the back of a man’s ballsack.

Honestly, I was impressed he was still flexible enough to get the phone back there.

 

Wish I Could Unsee That

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I was getting my first iPhone, and the store employee wanted to show me some features while they were synching my contacts, so he pulled out his iPhone.

He entered his password, and the first thing that popped up was an adult video. Awkward.

 

Birthday Gone Wrong

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My uncle dropped his phone in my birthday cake, then went to a repair store because the microphone wasn’t working.

There was frosting that hardened and clogged the mic.

Still Confused By This One

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This one older customer was very eager to show me and get my opinion on a picture he had on his feature phone of himself lying in a coffin.