Narelle Samios has collected the phone that was left unclaimed for seven years after Region readers recognised Narelle in the phone’s wallpaper photo of her and her niece. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
A search to find the owner of a mystery phone that was left in a lost property box for seven years has been successful, thanks to Region Riverina readers, but there was a plot twist that no one saw coming.
Meet Narelle Samios, the lovely lady whose smiling face was the wallpaper on the unclaimed device.
“That’s me, and that’s my niece’s daughter Mia, but it’s not my phone,” Narelle said.
What Narelle did say about the phone that was found in a Peter Street carpark was definitely unexpected – it actually belonged to a man she knew.
But first, a recap.
The wallpaper of the phone that was in a lost property box for seven years has allowed the owner to be identified thanks to Region Riverina readers. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
Staff at Wagga Wagga Community Care in Peter Street were doing an office clean-up when they found a small pile of lost property in a cupboard with a note dated May 2019. Among the items was a phone. It’s believed the device was handed in after being found in the carpark outside. Seven years passed, but the owner was never found.
When the phone was charged, it revealed an attractive blonde lady with a gorgeous smile, holding a young girl. No-one in the office could identify her and attempts to find her turned up nothing.
When Region published a story this week, readers wanted to help and the search spread interstate. Eventually, the mystery woman was identified as Narelle Samios – who was living in Wodonga when the phone was lost but had moved to Wagga recently.
“I had two friends contact me separately about the article; Narelle, who worked at Mission Employment, yes, another Narelle, who is here in Wagga, and Faye, who did hairdressing down the other end of Wagga. So I had a little read, and sent it [the article] off to my son and my daughter up in Queensland, and my niece, Kim, down in Melbourne, as the little girl in the photo is Mia, is my niece’s daughter, who just started high school,” Ms Samios said.
“Here I was thinking, ‘why am I on there with Mia?’ Because that was strange, but anyway, they used to come up and visit (from Melbourne) all the time,” she said.
What Narelle said next was completely unexpected.
“So Kim rang me back and said, ‘Oh, that’s Dad’s phone, because that’s the iPhone I gave Dad’. When she finished with her phone and got a new one, she’d give her dad the old one,” Narelle said.
Her Dad was Kevin ‘Batesie’ Millard, a Wagga born-and-bred local who lived in a house in Peter Street, across the road from what is now Centrelink.
Mr Millard’s unrequited affection for Narelle saw him choose a photo of her as his phone’s wallpaper.
“He used to work at the Johnny Mac Hotel. That’s how long ago it was,” Narelle said.
“He was with my sister Keryn for a lot of years, and then they broke up, and then he just, he seemed to develop a thing for me,” Narelle said.
“Keryn and I were always together and we were real close. They used to visit all the time. Nothing ever happened, but he was always visiting, and you know, he’d always ring me.
“There’s no awkwardness, no, I never did anything about it. I just knew that he liked me and that was about it.”
There’s another mystery, however. The note on the lost property box where the phone was handed in at Wagga Wagga Community Care was dated May 2019.
“Kevin passed away in September 2018; I know this because my mum died in October 2019, so I can’t understand how his phone was found in a carpark eight months after he’d gone. The whole thing’s a mystery,” Narelle said.
As for the phone, Narelle said she would make sure to return it to the original owner, her niece Kim.
“I don’t want to see what’s in the phone,” Narelle said.
“Maybe there’s a few photos. I will call Kim again and see if she wants me to send it down to her in Melbourne, or she can get it when she next comes up. It will be up to her what she wants.”
