How can I find the owner of an obstinate iPhone? So, I have this iphone that my parents found. I need some advice on how to find the owner. It's a puzzler though.

It was dead and I'm an android user so I couldn't power it up to find the owners info. So, I took it to the Apple store assuming that since I thought Apple was all about service, they would just take care of it.

No such luck. They said they couldn't help me. They did let me charge it up though. Might I point out that it's really stupid how long you have to wait for usability when plugging in a dead iPhone.

Anyway, when it finally became usable (20 minutes of standing foolishly in the Apple store later), it immediately popped up a little message saying it had no sim installed and when touched it just displayed a lock screen. The store employee told me there was nothing that could be done with that except a wipe.

I doubt a carrier would be helpful since there is no sim. I was under the impression that the sim couldn't be removed from an iphone though. Is that inaccurate?

Anyway, it also said the date was December 31st and my parents just found it a little over a week ago so I'm assuming it was sitting in that location for quite some time, which isn't all that surprising considering where it was. I guess maybe the clock isn't updating due to the lack of a sim... Just a guess though.

So now the only thing I really have to link it to it's original owner is the background pic on the phone which isn't much to go on at all. ;) Especially since it's half covered by the missing sim message.

Any ideas? You would think in this connected world that this wouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately I think it might be.
Your best bet is to just place an ad on Craigslist and in the paper in the lost and found sections. If someone tries to claim the phone, have them identify the picture on the lock screen. 

I used to work at an Apple Store Genius Bar. We were not allowed to give out any information from our system ever. If you're located in the US and the phone has a SIM, it probably has AT&amp;T as a carrier. They will not be able to give you any info on the phone either. 

Just to provide some insight as far as why Apple can't help you contact the whoever might be listed in their system, remember that a computer or iPhone is a transferrable device. We would frequently have customers bring in a device for repair that was purchased secondhand and the original owner's information was still in our system. 

Let's say Tommy buys a MacBook Pro and registers it. Later, Tommy sells his MacBook Pro to Kate because he's broke. Kate purchases the MacBook Pro but does not update the registration. A month later, she leaves the computer in an airport and you find it. You take it to the Apple store and they say, "Oh, here is all of Tommy's info. We'll just call up Tommy and he can come get his MacBook back."

Tommy is not a very scrupulous person, and he fails to mention that he sold the MacBook Pro a month ago. He comes and picks it up and now he has Kate's money and his old computer back. Sweet deal, right? So you can see why this isn't something that Apple would be willing to do.

The Apple employee you talked to was not trying to be obstructive when he wouldn't help you out, but there's a lot of liability things at stake here. They were pretty committed to the idea of protecting customer data, sometimes to the point of idiocy when I worked there, so they're pretty much a dead end as far as returning the phone.