This iPhone 4 Managed to Survive an Entire Year at the Bottom of a Frigid Lake

Imagine you dropped your iPhone into an icy lake. Would you expect it to survive after a year?

Normally, a dip of that length, in any body of water is enough to spell the end of most electronics. But in a strange twist of fate, a Pennsylvania man’s iPhone 4 managed to survive over a year at the bottom of Kyle Lake, about two hours from Pittsburgh.

Michael Guntrum, of Knox, Pennsylvania, was ice fishing at the lake in March 2015 with a friend. When Guntrum got a bite on his fishing line, his iPhone slipped off his lap and fell into the lake. Retrieving the phone was out of the question — the temperature that day was reportedly around negative-25 degrees.

“I caught the fish — it was a blue gill — but it wasn’t worth it,” Guntrum told BuzzFeed News.

The lake eventually ended up being drained in September 2015 because of some structural issues with its dam. Around a month later, Daniel Kalgren, a mechanical engineer from western Pennsylvania, was out treasure hunting at the lake with his metal detector. He was there to “find what people dropped off of boats,” and sure enough, he found Guntrum’s iPhone 4 under about 6 inches of mud, according to TechnoBuffalo.

“I took the phone home, cleaned it, and put it in rice — just out of curiosity to see if it would still work,” Kalgren told BuzzFeed. Seemingly against all odds, the phone sprang back to life two days later. It certainly wasn’t unscathed — the body and screen had both suffered damage — but the phone was still in working condition. Kalgren then managed to find Guntrum’s number on the device, and contacted him. Guntrum said he couldn’t believe it at first — and for good reason. Now that he knows his phone survived, he plans on repairing it once Kalgen mails him the device.

“My mom needs a smartphone, so I’ll give it to her,” he told BuzzFeed.

Of course, the phone’s tough OtterBox case probably had something to do with its survival. But even then, this story is certainly a testament to the durability of Apple devices. Cupertino’s flagship smartphones weren’t even rated as water resistant until this year’s iPhone 7 lineup. For a device to survive around a year at the bottom of a frigid lake is nothing short of amazing. Kalgren, who owns an iPhone 6 protected by a LifeProof case, seems to agree.

“I’m an Apple person, and this adds to the reasons why I only buy Apple devices,” Kalgren told BuzzFeed. “It’s pretty impressive it still works.”

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