system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how can law Enforcement track people using their phones?

Watching movies i get this question a lot
If a person throws his phone away , how does the police know who is the owner of the phone?
gpt
Phones don't just magically give you the ability to call people, it is a service that you pay for. If you toss your phone away, the phone you pay the cell company for service, then someone who finds the phone can ask the cell company who pays the bill. That will lead back to you.

Of course there are temporary prepaid phones which can be bought with cash leaving no paper trail, and these make tracking down the user of the phone much more difficult if not impossible. This is why the police were peeved at Saul selling such phones out of his car in Better Call Saul.