A HEARTBROKEN boy who lost his iPhone 8 mobile at the tip had a pleasant surprise when refuse workers went through the rubbish to find it for him.

Now Izak Sidle, 11, and his mother, Nikki Hetherington, of Eston, have thanked the team at Dunsdale Recycling Centre.

They came with flowers for the wife of Dave ‘DJ’ Jeffries who found the phone and a box of treats for the rest of the team including tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits.

“We were so happy when it was found,” said Izak, who plays in goal for two football teams. “It had slipped off my lap into a bag of empty gas cannisters. We thanked them at the time but now I’ve come with my mam to say thank you properly.”

Ian Robinson, Site Manager, and DJ told Nikki and Izak there was no need for the presents but Nikki laughed, saying; “take them – they’re a lot cheaper than a new mobile phone!”

Later, Nikki said: “People are always quite quick to complain and I know the guys here have had to have different rules during the coronavirus lockdown and kept going through it all. I just thought it would be nice to say ‘thanks’ properly.”

DJ, who went through the bag of cannisters which had been stored in a special area of the site, said: “This is so lovely, but there was really no need. My wife is poorly with Crohn’s Disease and she’ll be really over the moon with these. I’d just say to Izak to keep a close grip on that mobile phone!”

Ian Robinson, also thanked Izak and Nikki and recalled other items that had been recovered over the years.

He said: “The big one is car keys. People have them in their hand and throw them in the skip without thinking and we have to go through it to find them. And we have had plenty of mobile phones thrown in – we had a Samsung just the other week too.

“But the biggest find we ever had was a restaurant owner coming in about five years ago quite distressed. She was looking for a cereal box. We found it. Inside was thousands of pounds - I’d say £2,000 to £3,000 - in used notes. She was really grateful and gave us bottles of wine to say thank you.

“Another time, going back a few years, we had a man really worried because he’d lost a cheque worth £200. We had the skip turned upside down for him and we were all in there going through it for ages. Then he found it… under the car seat...

“We’re always happy to help but we’d advise the public to just take that extra moment to check before throwing their refuse away.”

Dunsdale Household Recycling Centre is open to residents of Redcar and Cleveland daily from 8am to 5pm- with vehicles requiring tipping permits only able to enter the site from 8am until 10am.

All previous social distancing measures remain in place and those entering the recycling centre will still require proof of residency in the borough.

Find out more at https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/resident/bins-waste-and-recycling/waste-sites/Pages/Dunsdale-HRWC.aspx