RCMP, pub goers and app recover lost iPhone on Sunshine Coast

A missing iPhone on the Sunshine Coast was recovered with help of local police, an app and a group pub goers in Sechelt.

Gillian Kydd was at an annual pub night for the local racket club at Gilligan's Pub.

"I was working on the silent auction, having put my little backpack that I use as a purse carefully away and an hour later, boom, it had gone," she told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

Her iPhone was in the bag, and had the Find My iPhone app installed, so Kydd rushed home to grab her iPad and found the GPS location of the phone.

"There's the little iPhone icon three blocks away."

A server at the pub called the RCMP, and an officer showed up at the pub to join in the hunt.

"It was taking this really sort of strange path. It went off the highway into Half Moon Bay, sort of around different roads and then it got to a park, and the woman from the pub comes out, looks at it, she says, 'Oh, it's a drug deal going down.'"

The phone then started making its way back to Sechelt.

"The RCMP officer, she's talking on her walkie-talkie to her buddy out there, and she's saying, 'Now it's getting to Norwest Bay Road.' It was closer and closer, and he says, 'It's a bus!'"

Police pulled over the bus and located the bag.

Kydd said a regular at the pub took the backpack by accident, but left it at a bus stop. A passenger found it and gave it to the bus driver to take care of.

"It's a great Sunshine Coast story. Pretty honest people and we have a great community."

To hear the full interview with Gillian Kydd, click the audio labelled: Gillian Kydd recovers lost iPhone.