What's considered due diligence in finding the owner?

Question

I found an iPhone 5 with a completelly smashed screen in a parking lo. I tried turning it on and heard nothing. It was very dusty and may have been there for some time. I put up signs around the area to try and find the owner. No one has made a correct identification. (Namely, the type of case it was in.) Yes, I would like to see if I could use it. If not as a phone, I could use it as an iPod Touch upgrade. (My iPod Touch 4 is happily used on a daily basis.) Outside the case the phone looks in perfect condition. From where I stand I have several options...
1) Buying a cord to hook it to my computer and seeing if I can find any contact info. Yes, it's snooping, but for all the right reasons. If I can't find anything I can at least see if I can reset it to factory settings.
2) Having the screen repaired. Which, at $150, I'd hate to do only to have someone say, "So what! It's mine, mine, mine! Gimme, gimme, GIMME!"
3) Take it into various phone stores to see what they think. I was told this was a HORRIBLE idea. I'm in a college town. And more than once someone has told me they turned a phone into a store only to have the employee snicker as they leave. (Hmmm...) It seems it doesn't matter if the phone works or not. Selling iPhones for parts has suddenly become a big thing.
4) Turning it into the police. Where it will probably sit there forever. Again, college town, someone loses something, just let the parents replace it.
"Mom/Dad, I lost something while in a drunken stupor...no, wait...Mom/Dad, I was helping someone in a drunken stupor...yeah, that sounds better..."
Have I done enough, or am I really just hedging and want a new toy?

Answer 1

To my mind, the only ethical thing to do is turn it in to the police.  Its not yours, you have no right to snoop (regardless of your rationalization about it being "for all the right reasons").