A crazy story about how a stolen iPhone, iCloud pictures, and the power of Chinese Twitter (Weibo) make an American famous in China. He also makes friends with a Chinese guy nicknamed "Brother Orange". Buzzfeed staff Matt Stopera and his new Chinese friend "Brother Orange"
Both Matt and Brother Orange take mudbaths together, sing karaoke together, attend numerous press conferences, meet Bro Orange's family etc. It's like an epic adventure in China between Matt and Brother Orange because of a stolen iPhone.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/how-i...my#.qmQD5yX0MR
How I Became A Minor Celebrity In China (After My Stolen Phone Ended Up There)
This really weird thing happened to my phone and an even weirder thing happened after. A continuation of: Who Is This Man And Why Are His Photos Showing Up On My Phone. Updated on March 18. Bro Orange and I are hanging out RIGHT NOW!
This GRAND tale of cryptic communication begins last February in the great year of 2014.
I was out after work in the East Village at a bar a bunch of BuzzFeed people go to called EVS. It’s on St. Marks Place, but I SWEAR, it’s not really that douchey. They have a really good happy hour and it’s never busy. The lighting is good and we love it. Sometimes they give us free fries.
It was my favorite place until the night my phone got stolen.
It was that feeling only people who have had their phone stolen know about
: furious at the world, but there was nothing I could do. I needed a phone, so the next day I went to my own personal hell, the Verizon store, and got suckered into some probable Ponzi scheme where I’ll be paying off my current phone for years.
Whatever. Fine. I needed a phone. I got the Selena (RIP forever with me) phone case I always wanted, and moved the fuck on.
That was until this past January.
I was watching TV at home looking for something to Insta. I rarely go through my photo stream, so it really surprised me when I saw a BUNCH of pictures of some random guy with an orange tree.
I did what anyone else would do at that moment: I tweeted about it.
He asked me if my phone had been stolen recently. I had to think about it because my phone had literally been stolen over a year ago. But yes, it had been.
Boom.
He told me that most stolen iPhones end up in China.
Boom.
That’s where these pictures must have been coming from: China.
He told me to go to the Apple Store immediately.
The next day, I went to the Apple Store and tried to explain to them that pictures from some guy in China were showing up on my phone.
They were confused. I got sent around the store until some guy made me log into my iCloud account.
Sure enough, there was my old iPhone on network.
That was it. There it was. My stolen iPhone had gone from the East Village to China. Incredible.
My old stolen phone in China was essentially a brick and wouldn’t work for my old orange tree friend anymore. The reason his pictures were showing up on my current phone was because he must have been logged into my iCloud account.
I woke up this morning to a bunch of tweets from people saying the story is spreading on “Chinese Twitter,” Weibo. That’s cool and all but the best part is they’re helping me find him.That was it.
tmacshadow @tmacshadow
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@mattstopera ur story is very famous in China now，it has been reposted for more than 10000 times on weibo（Chinese Twitter） in one hour。
DFY @DFY9
Then they found him.
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@mattstopera 小哥！！橘子哥找到啦！！！
Hey bro!The orange tree brother was found!@mattstopera The guy is from Guangdong China, we Chinese are helping you look for him on the Internet lol
2/21 UPDATE!
So, this morning I created a Weibo account and Jesus Christ, it was overwhelming.
He also released a statement. This is the translated version, so obviously it’s a little confusing but you can figure it out.
Speaking of Bro Orange, I’m one step closer to going to China and actually meeting him. THIS IS HAPPENING.
I finally made it and it is crazy. EVERYONE showed up at the airport to meet me.
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