Lost iPhone Reward Denied: A 12-Year-Old Proves He’s Better At Life Than Most Adults

A lost iPhone reward of $30 was denied by a 12-year-old boy in Britain after the young man answered a call from the owner’s mother and agreed to leave the phone at a Birmingham train station.

Michelle Hickinbottom, 36, offered to send the boy a reward via mail if he would leave his address, but instead he left a note.

“Don’t worry about the money. Just do something nice for someone else :),” the young man wrote, signing his name “Josh Brown.”

Hickinbottom had her work cut out for her since Brown’s name wasn’t altogether unique.

She and her daughter Shaunnah — pictured right of Josh below, also the iPhone 4’s owner — launched a social media campaign to track down the young man. After posting pics posing with the letter and the phone on Facebook and Twitter, they finally found success when Josh’s mother Angela came forward, The Daily Mail reports.

“I was choked when I saw the letter,” Hickinbottom said. “I was really overwhelmed. He will go far in life with an attitude like that. He seems a great lad.”

It is hard to see many adults taking the same course of action that Josh did. Some would have taken the phone and turned it in for cash. Some would have left their address and gladly accepted the iPhone reward. Some would have never picked up the phone at all, taking the “it’s not my problem” approach.

Not Josh.

And after thousands of nice posts on social media commending the boy, as well as comments from other websites that have picked up the story, a clear majority are in agreement: he’s much better at this life thing than most adults.

Angela Brown summed up her feelings for her son and the worldwide support for Josh’s story.

“We are still overwhelmed by the lovely posts and the attention it has attracted. We are very proud of him. But he just did the right thing. It was the only bit of paper I had in my handbag. It was the back of an envelope. It was all Josh’s idea. He said he wasn’t going to take any money off her and he’d just ask her to do something nice for someone else in future.”

Opposing Views commenters were congratulatory not just of Josh, but also his parents.

“If more children were raised with values like him the world would b a much better place! Keep it up little guy!!” wrote Brian Wayne Robinson.

Totally agree.

Josh certainly did the right thing in this case, but do you think there would have been anything wrong with accepting the lost iPhone reward? Sound off in the comments section.