An Amazing Story About a Selfless Man

This morning, I was in Tawau for a meeting. After it ended, I asked my Site Supervisor to take me for a quick visit to an old project site - a massive storm drain which we had designed and supervised way back in 1989. I wanted to snap a few photographs for memory’s sake.

After taking the photos, I jumped down from the edge of the drain to the roadside verge. In that very moment, disaster struck - my handphone slipped out of its casing and plunged straight into the murky, rubbish-filled, foul-smelling water below.

It was horror of horrors. The thought of losing the phone itself wasn’t as painful as the idea of losing hundreds of precious contact numbers stored inside. Looking at the water’s condition - the depth, the stench, and the trash floating about - I knew there was no way I could retrieve it.

Then came an incredible moment. Without a second’s hesitation, my Supervisor removed his shoes and climbed into the waist-deep water to try to recover it for me. At first, he tried to feel for the phone with his feet. When that didn’t work, he climbed back up - only to discover that his own phone, forgotten in his pocket, had been completely soaked and was now lifeless. I felt terrible.

Still, he didn’t give up. He stripped off his shirt and went back into the drain, this time using his hands to search. After nearly 15 minutes of determined effort, he suddenly yelled, “Got it!” To my amazement, he had found my phone at the bottom of the drain.

Of course, my phone was waterlogged and dead on arrival. But there was one silver lining - I managed to retrieve the SIM card, sparing me the nightmare of rebuilding my contacts list from scratch.

Back home, I remembered a tip someone once gave me: dry a soaked phone with a hair dryer. I tried it, and to my utter relief, the phone powered back on. Everything was intact - contacts, messages, photos - praise the Lord!

I immediately tried to call my Supervisor to share the good news, but naturally, his phone wasn’t working. So I sent him an SMS through one of his friends, asking him to try the same drying trick. An hour later, he texted back with equally wonderful news - his phone had revived too!

What an unbelievable twist to an almost tragic story. Both phones, back to life.

And for the record, the true hero of the day - the “saviour” of my phone - is none other than Maznan Madun.