The age of the smartphone has been in full swing for a decade now.

With everyone trading out their phones every year or two, you're bound to have some story of how you accidentally broke the expensive, but indispensable tool.

Erica Bennett made the all too common mistake of dropping her iPhone in a large body of water, in this case, the Edisto River in South Carolina. iPhones have plenty of features you might not be aware of, but surviving deep dives is not one of them.

Luckily, the phone was in a waterproof case, but despite her and her family searching, they couldn't find it. A phone is a phone, and can be replaced, but text messages and pictures on the phone could not.

It seemed they would be lost forever.

That is, until they weren't.

Found Lost iPhone After 15 Months Underwater In The River! (Returned To Owner)www.youtube.com

Michael Bennett (no relation to Eric Bennett) is a treasure hunter who makes YouTube videos. He has videos finding coins with a metal detector and diving rivers looking for interesting finds.

In his newest video, Michael dives the Edisto River and finds a lanyard. He grabs it, thinking it would be connected to keys or something, and instead comes face to face with an iPhone in a sealed bag.

He was able to pull the phone out of the case, and charge the phone. Surprisingly, it powered on!

What kind of case is that?

After some trial and error, Michael was able to get some information off the phone. He called the original owner, Erica, and told her what he found.

Erica was flabbergasted. She estimated that the phone was down there for over a year, which made Michael really excited.

The two met up and and Erica was so happy. It turned out, the old phone had some pictures taken, which sure, is nice to have back. But it also had old text messages from her late father.

She had thought those old messages lost forever, but luckily can now recover them.

The phone itself is a little jank, with the screen not displaying correctly. However, Erica was able to backup the phone to get her texts back.

Which reminds me, you should probably be using a backup service of some kind. These devices are surprisingly easy to destroy and lose, so you probably will need a way to recover data off your phone if the worst should happen.

Seriously, backup your phone data.

Michael really enjoys making these videos. While the treasure hunting might seem like an end unto itself, Michael often finds and is excited by less valuable goods.

He told ABC News,

"I just try to find stuff from the past and things that tell a story."

I'd say Erica's phone has told a pretty good one.

There's more than one way to mourn and remember. One way is this memorial frame available here.

*****

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