Joe, it's the same. When you have a piece of property that you know is not yours, and you have no bill of sale, and you contact the owner your only course of action is to GET A BILL OF SALE or other recognized document wherein they formally reject their claim to the property.
You have no other choices.
There's no "I made a phone call and they said it's OK" exception.
not the case here.
They had a bricked phone.
Theft is simply not the crime here. What was the crime the search war. alleged?