A lost iPhone survived for an incredible two and a half months submerged in a river - and still works.

Faizan Choudhry, 24, a Dunkin' Donuts employee, lost his iPhone 14 Pro Max on July 4 while tubing on the Delaware River along the New Jersey–Pennsylvania border.

What seemed like a lost cause took an unbelievable turn when, on September 19, the Edison, New Jersey native received a call from a woman, who told him she had found the phone.

He met her the following day to retrieve the phone, amazed to see it powering on first time after being submerged in water for months.

"I've been using it, and believe it or not, it works perfectly fine," Choudhry said. "

"I do have a little bit of a problem with the camera — it's a little bit blurry when it gets light, and it's not able to catch the light properly. "

"But even the pictures are fine as well."

The iPhone's journey back to Choudhry was a stroke of luck.

Early this month, Maddy Wells, a retired VA employee in Bluffton, South Carolina, came to visit the Delaware River area with friends for a canoeing trip.

"We circled back and picked it up, brought it home dripping wet, and tried plugging it in," Wells said. "

"We got it to power up, and my friend showed me how to get the emergency contact information."

"When it finally lit up, it actually said July 4th."

"I was shocked. That means the phone was in the water for two and a half months."

The phone displayed a "lost phone" message with Choudhry's contact number, which allowed Wells to call him on September 19 and arrange for the device's return."

Because he had switched to a new phone but kept the same number, Wells was able to contact Choudhry directly.

"Hi, good evening, my name is Maddy, and I have managed to find an Apple phone on the Delaware River," Wells said in the voicemail."

Wells noted she believed the phone belonged to someone in Choudhry's family and "it actually still works."

She went on to give Choudhry her number, adding she "would love to get this phone back to you somehow"."

After receiving Wells' voicemail, Choudhry was initially skeptical about the legitimacy of the call.

"I was sketchy about it a little at first, thinking that I might be getting scammed or something," he said, noting he changed his mind when Wells sent him a text with a picture of his phone."

Choudhry made the hour-long drive to meet Wells at the Holcombe-Jimison Farmstead Museum in Lambertville, New Jersey, just across the Delaware River.

When Choudhry finally arrived and saw his phone, his reaction was one of amazement.

"I just couldn't believe it," he said. "I was just mind blown. "

"I mean, you wouldn't expect something like that after two and a half months being in the water."

Calling the iPhone "the star of the show," Wells says the story felt like "a happy ending"."

She added: "Our whole lives are in these phones now. It didn't even occur to me not to try to get it back to him. "

"There were"

lots of smiles when we met."

Wells says she later received a Visa gift card for her kindness, which she described as "so very generous"."

She added: "There was happiness all around."

Friends and family were floored when Choudhry shared the news.

"They just couldn't believe it," he said. "

"Nobody — and I showed every single one of them — they were just all mind blown, literally."

"I just honestly cannot believe it."