--- title: Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone While Riding Roller Coaster description: A New Zealand man skillfully caught a stranger's phone while riding a thrilling roller coaster at a Barcelona theme park. canonical: https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-05T14:34:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T08:24:39.699Z og:title: Watch Man Catch Stranger's Phone While Riding Roller Coaster og:description: What, like it's hard? og:url: https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eaaff8ec1ffd514/698a026f86f68e48236ed86b/man-catches-strangers-phone-on-roller-coaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: People Enjoy Bank Holiday Monday At Thorpe Park og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Man Catch Stranger's Phone While Riding Roller Coaster twitter:description: What, like it's hard? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eaaff8ec1ffd514/698a026f86f68e48236ed86b/man-catches-strangers-phone-on-roller-coaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d0f61419-ad68-46a2-b82b-d71ae8981b98&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster [Watch (HLS stream): Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VyB41JYB.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2019-09-05. Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 5, 2019 2:34 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 5, 2019 2:34 PM UTC If you need more thrills, consider performing the act of public service that a New Zealand man did at a Barcelona theme park: catching a stranger’s phone in mid-air while riding a [roller coaster.](https://time.com/5313192/roller-coaster-derail-daytona-beach/) Samuel Kempf, who was in Spain representing New Zealand in the [Fistballing World Championship](https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/sport/114339354/three-timaru-fistballers-in-countrys-first-world-championships-attempt), decided to ride a roller coaster at Barcelona’s PortAventura theme park. While on the ride, he saw that a man had dropped his phone into the bottom of his car and couldn’t pick it up. In an interview with [_Stuff New Zealand_](https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/115573939/timaru-sportsman-catches-flying-phone-on-rollercoaster), Kempf said that he joked to his brother and other riders that when the ride dropped, they should “get ready to catch,” which Kempf actually did once the ride picked up some speed. “The ride started and I totally forgot about it because I was just in the moment ’cause it was such a good ride and then after the first drop we rose up and I just saw the phone drift across my view so I reached out and managed to catch it,” he said. Once the ride ended, Kempf returned the phone to the grateful man and discovered that his incredible feat had been captured by the ride’s reaction video. Kempf’s good deed did not go unrewarded; as a token of gratitude, the man who lost his phone bought him the video of the memorable roller coaster ride. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/"},"headline":"Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster","datePublished":"2019-09-05T14:34:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T08:24:39.699Z","description":"What, like it's hard?","url":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eaaff8ec1ffd514/698a026f86f68e48236ed86b/man-catches-strangers-phone-on-roller-coaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eaaff8ec1ffd514/698a026f86f68e48236ed86b/man-catches-strangers-phone-on-roller-coaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People Enjoy Bank Holiday Monday At Thorpe Park","caption":"People Enjoy Bank Holiday Monday At Thorpe Park","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/","name":"Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster","description":"Hero Catches a Stranger's Phone Mid-Air While Riding a Roller Coaster","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VyB41JYB/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-09-05T18:10:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VyB41JYB.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5669704/man-catches-phone-while-riding-roller-coaster/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```