AN IPHONE that was found at the bottom of the River Wye last week has been returned to its owner still working, 10 months later and 360 miles away.

Miguel Pacheco from Drybrook spotted “something blue” while out canoeing on a family trip near Symonds Yat last Wednesday and pulled out a phone.

He cleaned it off and dried it out in an airing cupboard, and to his amazement he was then able to charge it up and turn it on.

That sparked a post on Cinderford Facebook page showing the screensaver of a man and a woman that was shared 4,000 times.

And it was noticed over the weekend by a friend of Edinburgh-based owner Owain Davies, who had dropped it in the river on a Wye stag-do canoe trip on August 13 last year.

Miguel told BBC Gloucestershire: “I took it home, opened it up and dried it out with an airline, then left it in the airing cupboard over night to dry properly.

“I didn’t think it was any good. It was full of water. But I know if I lost my phone, I’ve got a lot of pictures of my children, and I know I’d want that back.

“I then put it on charge the following morning and couldn’t believe my eyes, it was actually working.”

Gratefully reunited with the phone after Miguel found his address and posted it to him, Owain said: “I was in a two-man canoe and my partner probably shouldn’t have stood up, and needless to say we fell in.

“The phone was in my back pocket and as soon as it was in the water I realised the phone was gone.”

And expressing his thanks, he added: “My natural reaction (if I found it) would be to hand it into the nearest pub. It wouldn’t be to use my air compressor to dry it out and dismantle it.”

Miguel was only to happy to reunite the phone with its owner, with the photo of Owain and his fiancée Fiona Gardner on the screensaver, the date it was dropped in the drink, and pics of the stag do.