Ok, so I lost my LG P500 yesterday. I tried ringing it several times over the course of yesterday and today - it rang - but no one answered. Late this afternoon I got a phone message at home saying my phone had been found - my faith in humanity restored - but only short lived. When I rang the finder - the first thing she asked was "is there a reward for finding?" I happily said yes and set off to pick up my phone. On arrival at finders house, the first question I got was "how much is your phone worth to you?" I thanked her for finding my phone and offered her $20. My phone wasn't handed over - I endured a spiel that because my phone is around $500 dollars, an appropriate reward should be around $100! I reached over, took the phone, gave her the $20 and promptly left.
Anyway ...
On getting the phone back, I found that the finder had exhausted the 20 attempts at screen lock before google had asked for gmail sign in. My phone also told me that my gmail account had an incorrect password attempt. In short, the finder had tried to get the phone to be usable, but had failed, then, I guess, as a last resort, opted for ringing me for reward (they had got my home phone number from the phone as it was displayed when I had tried ringing it several times).
In short, my faith in humanity has not been totally restored, but I am pleased to get my phone back safe in the knowledge that a good screen lock basically renders the hand piece useless to the uninitiated. I am curious, though, for the more tech savvy - is there a way to break into a android phone bypassing the screen lock?