‘Year of Return’: Lady narrates how she bought back her iPhone from Circle

Kaiser Coby is a YouTube beauty guru who was part of the ‘Returnees’ to Ghana when it marked 400-years after the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown in Virginia during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Ghanaian born British visited Ghana with her twin sister Mariah Coby in December 2019 during the ‘Year of Return’ and lost her latest iPhone 11 Pro Max at Bloom Bar in Accra on December 22, 2019.

Narrating her ordeal on her YouTube Channel, Kaiser Coby stated that she visited Bloom Bar with her twin sister, cousins and friends to have fun. It was actually her third visit to the place so she was familiar with whatever goes in and around the place.

She said after struggling to enter the bar, she realised that her bag was open but luckily for her, her iPhone 11 Pro Max was in her pocket which was rather deeper than her bag so she felt safe at that moment. Therefore, she decided to have a very good time with her folks at the bar.

At 1.00am, they decided to leave Bloom Bar and go to the next joint which was Onyx Night Club to continue their fun. Whilst they were exiting Bloom Bar, a scuffle ensued right in the middle of the bar so she decided to find a safe place to stand in order not to get hurt. During that time, she felt her phone slide out of her pocket.

“I was like oh my [gosh], what is happening to me, am I being pickpocketed right now. I was like are you guys mad, just give me my phone right now, I’m gonna go mad…,” she said.

She added that her phone wasn’t insured, either, her contacts weren’t backed up because she has never lost her phone before therefore there was no need to either insure her phone or back up her contacts.



At that moment Kaiser said she used ‘Find my iPhone’ App on one of her friends’ phone to at least track her phone but it was to no avail because the phone was turned off.

She said she was screaming that she will be paying any amount just to get her phone back; that the person who had it shouldn’t leave the bar [Bloom Bar] with it.

“My sister, cousins and friends told me that the phone is gone and I’m not going to get it back so we should go to Onyx, drink the night away and forget about it until tomorrow.”

After 24-hours, Kaiser got a notification from ‘Find My iPhone’ indicating that the phone has been turned on and was a mile away.

According to Kaiser, she had earlier instructed her boyfriend to put up a post on her Social Media handle that her phone was missing.

The tweet read, “GUYS PLEASE! RETWEET!!!!! I JUST LOST MY PHONE IN GHANA AT BLOOM BAR! IF ANYONE HAS FOUND IT PLEASE CAN YOU DM ME! I’LL PAY ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR IT! IT HAS A LOT OF MY CONTENT ON IT”.

She said her Ghanaian Twitter followers kept replying that she should go to a place known as ‘Circle’.

After locating where the phone was on her ‘Find My iPhone’ it directed her to Circle. So, she left her place of abode to Circle with a family friend.

This family friend knew someone at Circle who can be described as an “area guy” who knew people who could help her find her phone.

After narrating how her phone got missing to this “area guy” at Circle, the guy [area guy] also had to contact another “area guy” who knew the “ins and outs” of Circle to help her.

Kaiser said the guy assured her that he would help her find her phone but unless she compensated the “thief”. The compensation was to be in the form of buying back her phone from the thief which was also a sign of respect for his hustle.

‘Confused’, Kaiser, after trying to understand how the Circle system works decided to agree to buy her own phone back for GHC500.00 that is, £66.78 but on condition that she saw her phone.

After waiting for long hours, the “area guys” at circle returned without the phone but with some words of encouragement that she should go and come the next day by which time they would have found the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

An upset Kaiser later called her auntie for the latter to introduce them to another “area guy” who later arrived and after a long back and forth told the guys Kaiser had contacted earlier that they should work together.

The guys then told her that after finding the phone she must pay GHC3,000 (£400.61; $524.93).

Kaiser agreed to the terms and conditions of the guys and went straight to the bank to cash out the money for them but her bank ATM could only allow her to cash out GHC2,000.

At 8.30am the guys returned with her iPhone 11 Pro Max but everything was off her phone, that is, her contacts, as well as documents; everything was off her phone.

Kaiser said she paid that huge amount of money because she thought she would get her contacts and other documents when the phone was found.

“When I realised that all my contacts were gone, I was like wow! This was a good day but wasted,” she said.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com