Buzzfeed writer finds fame in China after a bizarre social media search for a stolen phone’s new owner
It’s a bizarre tale of the global reach and power of social media. An American man has found fame in China, and it’s all thanks to social.
Buzzfeed writer, Mott Stopera lost his iPhone at a bar more than a year ago. Recently, he began to find pictures of a stranger, which he hadn’t taken, on his new phone.
Naturally, he created a Buzzfeed article, titled ‘Who is this man, and why are his pictures on my iPhone?’
As it turned out, Stopera’s stolen iPhone had made it all the way to China – where apparently, most stolen phones go – and had been resold, without the iCloud being logged out.
The post garnered much attention, especially in China. On the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, people were adamant to help man find the man in the pictures, who they had begun to call Brother Orange. It wasn't long before Stopera was trending on Chinese social media.
Within hours, the man in the pictures was tracked identified. As it turns out, he lives in a small, remote village called Meizhou.
Stopero chatted with Bro Orange for a while and decided to travel to China to meet him.
Upon landing, Stopero was stunned to find that he wasn’t just social media famous, he was actually famous. He spent his time getting to know Brother Orange, while being swarmed by cameras, reporters, and adoring fans – some of whom had travelled hours to see him.
An unlikely friendship had formed, Stopero became famous, and China had a new American hero, and it was all thanks to a stolen phone, a Buzzfeed article, and a social media quest.
In a report released last year, it was revealed that while iPhones are the phones most likely to be stolen, phone theft overall is going down.