Yup.

Rice is hydrophilic. The science checks out.

You mishandled this. I find it hard to believe the phone didn't receive any incoming calls, but you also could have just used Siri to "call mom."

You could have checked the screen under a bright light for smudge patterns and possibly unlock it.

You could have handed it in to the local police station. A police station is probably 300 billion times easier for the owner to track down than some random person.

You could have done any number of things that would have been better than stashing it away at your private residence.

You basically stole a phone. I think you figured out you weren't gonna be able to unlock it and use it for yourself, so nowww you're trying to "do the right thing."

Try being nice? I have nothing nice to say. You made a public post. These are my thoughts.

True, he could have committed mass murder but didn't

You missed your window of opportunity. You use the voice control to "call mom" and go from there. I've done this before. A lot less you can do now that there's no cell service.

It kinda sounds like you just found a phone and then stashed it away for no reason.

It's not your responsibility to track down the owner but just stashing it away was like the worst thing you could do...

That's incredible