iPhone dropped while river rafting washes up eight months later

March 10 (UPI) -- A teenager who lost his iPhone while white water rafting in British Columbia was reunited with the device when it washed up on an island eight months later.

Patti Bacchus said she frequently combs the beach in front of her Mayne Island home for trash, and on one recent morning she found a Frisbee, a $20 bill and an iPhone 7 in a watertight case.

Bacchus recounted on Twitter how she opened the case, charged the phone and her husband, Lee, correctly guessed the passcode: 1-2-3-4-5-6.

Bacchus found a contact for "Mom" and texted the number, discovering the phone belonged to the woman's son, Hunter Hoffman, 16.

Hoffman said he lost his phone when his raft overturned on the Coquitlam River in July. The phone apparently spent eight months in the water, making its way to Piggot Bay and ending up on the beach.

"It's bizarre how it traveled so far, and there's not even damage to the phone," Hoffman's mother, Angela, told the Times-Colonist newspaper.

Bacchus said solving the mystery was a fun diversion from the monotony of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I'm keeping the $20 and the Frisbee, and I'll keep picking up garbage off the beach. I think the moral of the story is go clean up a beach and buy a good case for your phone," she said.