Lost your cell phone? A new state law protects you from paying charges the finder might rack up — provided you contact the service provider.

The law, which went into effect Saturday, states that a customer is not liable for unauthorized use if the phone is reported lost or stolen — a policy similar to many already used by cell phone companies but not always easily navigable.

Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul and a law co-sponsor, said the legislation came about after a constituent told her of a stolen phone that racked up roughly $1,000 worth of unauthorized calls.

Anderson and her staff did more research and said there are countless other “horror stories” regarding lost and stolen phones.

Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul and the law’s other co-sponsor, said the measure gives cell phone users added confidence and peace of mind.

“I think it gives consumers a much stronger bargaining position,” he said.

While the law doesn’t specify if a person is liable or not for unauthorized charges racked up before notifying the provider, Lesch said it could be applicable in small-claims cases and favor the phone user.

David Wieler, manager at KL Communications in Austin, said Wednesday he hadn’t yet heard of the new law, but added it’s important for people to always contact their provider if they lose their phone.

“The biggest thing is to call in the minute you lose it,” he said. “At a minimum, have it suspended.”

Wieler said KL can make that call for customers, but noted that he doesn’t get a particularly high number of lost cell phone reports.

Nationally, the number of lost cell phones is hard to pinpoint. One estimate, from Asurion, a wireless technology protection company serving more than 70 million people worldwide, claims 60 million phones are lost, stolen or damaged yearly.

An older survey from the Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm in Boston, questioned 2,900 households with wireless phones and found that 19 percent had bought cell phones in the last year to replace ones they had lost, according to the New York Times.

But that survey was done in 2000, and a group spokesperson said the question hadn’t been asked in recent years.

Then there are tidbits like the roughly 300 cell phones collected weekly at Disneyland’s lost and found, according to a 2005 USA Today article.

A little more defined are statistics on the popularity of cell phones.

CTIA, an international nonprofit representing all sectors of wireless communications, reports that roughly 270.3 million Americans were subscribed to a wireless device by the end of 2008 — about 87 percent of the population.

With so many people using cell phones — and the potentially high costs of replacing them — Sen. Anderson said it was a good time to pass a law that supports these consumers.

“I’m really proud of this,” she said.