So on my second day in Subic (staying at Treasure Island) I decided to take a trike from Baloy Beach to Barretto and flagged down a driver from the stand in front of Kokomos for the ride. Made sure I had all my crap with me and soon found myself at Arizona Resort. The trike and I part ways, I check out the resto/bar area of Arizona then head inland up the street to get a feel for the locals.
Having stopped to buy some juice, I reached in my pocket for some pesos and no iPhone! Ever have that sick feeling when you know you've really screwed up? Yeah, that was me. Jumped in another trike (first guy was long gone) and headed straight back to the original trike stand. Spent the next several hours leaving notes at the hotels (no questions asked reward) with my PI cell number and talking to every trike driver I could find in Baloy. Walked down to Arizona JIC the damn thing slid out in the road then back again on the other side of the street. Called the phone numerous times, sent messages regarding reward, etc. Nothing...
The next few days really sucked - of course all my contact info was backed up on iTunes, but as you know these smart phone hold lots of information. Even though the phone was password protected, I came to learn that a good tech with a laptop could easily bypass. Ended up changing dozens of passwords over the next couple days (thank god I had my laptop with me!), tried iPhone locator service but phone was not online. Finally setup command to erase all content should someone try to connect to WiFi.
Three days later I was walking up the beach and when I approached TI security meet me and said he had good news on my phone. A guy was waiting there who said he knew a guy who could get the phone. I reiterated the no questions asked reward and he said he would be back in a couple hours. About an hour later, he shows up with a second man who handed over the phone. Although the battery was dead, I could tell it was mine due to some cosmetic damage on the case. Paid the reward and the two guys went on there way. The second guy did say the thrid party tried to sell him the phone, but he knew about the reward and agreed to play go between. BTW - tipped hotel security just for good measure!
After charging, I ensured that WiFi was disabled and then performed a fresh backup. Connected to internet and sure as shit, the phone erased itself! No worries - spent some time doing a restore and playing with the settings until I had it back the way I like.
Some faith in humanity restored over this episode. I'm pretty sure that "they" could have gotten more money on the black market then the 2000 PHP I offered, but for whatever reason did not actually do so. Or maybe I was just lucky that it fell into less tech savvy hands...