Canadian Teen Trades-in Broken iPhone Along with ALL of Her Photos, Social Media Accounts

Have you ever dropped your smartphone on the ground display first, watching in helpless panic as it tumbled and shattered against the elements beneath your feet?

Either way, it’s certainly a gut-wrenching experience, watching your beloved smartphone come tumbling to the ground (and its early demise), which is unfortunately what one teenager based out of Ontario, Canada recently learned the hard way.

What Happened?

Under the assumption that her shattered iPhone 5s was “basically junk,” noting how she could “hardly type two characters on the badly damaged screen” before it stopped working, 15-year-old Natalie Hall of Bowmanville, Ontario, decided to trade in the device at a mall-based kiosk last fall, CBC News reports, noting that the Hall’s were given $11 off the purchase of a new phone from mobile retailer TBooth.

Hall assumed her device would be recycled for parts on account of how damaged it was, saying “It was so broken — to the point where the guy I sold it to couldn’t even use it himself.”

What happened next, though, was a harrowing lesson that Hall and her mother won’t soon forget..

Instead of being recycled for parts, Hall’s iPhone was eventually sold to a man living over 6,800 miles away — a complete stranger who would come to discover all of Hall’s photos, data and active Facebook and Instagram accounts on the device. 

Interestingly, it wasn’t until last week when the owner of her since refurbished iPhone messaged Hall on Facebook indicating he bought the device in Dubai and that it still had all of her data on it, CBC reports, noting that to validate his claims, the man sent Hall a screenshot of her old iOS camera roll, even commenting on the “sweet” photos of her, her friends and her dog.

Image via Natalie Hall / CBC

“I was overwhelmed,” Hall said, adding that “It’s creepy having your pictures and your contacts and your social media, text messages — all of that kind of stuff — out there with just a random stranger.”

The man, whose identity remains unknown, reportedly sent Hall multiple Facebook messages asking her to accept his request — however she denied, ultimately leading him to go in and add himself to her friends list on both Facebook and Instagram, from which Hall said “He had liked all my posts and I was like: I have a private account, I didn’t accept this.” 

“I had to change my passwords for everything,” Hall said, noting that she’s since blocked the stranger from her social media accounts. 

The Man Responds

CBC allegedly reached out to the man who was contacting Hall on Facebook, and in a series of messages he indicated he was deeply sorry for “disturbing Hall,” offering the assurance that he’s since wiped all of the data from her phone and sold it.

He claimed the phone was part of a “bulk purchase” of damaged devices which he bought while in Dubai and planned to repurpose for sale.