Accused of stealing an iPhone?

I'm 15 and I was at a friends house and there was loads of people there (they were all high except from me) and we adll decided to hide this girls iphone 5, I hid it outside near the front door and then after about 30 minutes i got a call from my mum saying i had to come home, I left, sent a message to my friend telling her where it was then completely forgot about it, when i got home i got a message on facebook asking where it was, my message didn't send and they thought i took it, turns out more people arrived after i left and it was stolen, they have said i'm responsable as i moved it and it was taken. I have no money so now they are getting the police involved, can i be charged for moving it even though someone else stole it?

Explain that you tried to send the text but it didn't go through, show them the text

Yeah you broke the law at hide the girl's iphone, the rest is nonsense.give it up you're 15 yet you have the soul of a 70 year old trickster.change that or have a sad life.

The answer depends on the law of the place where all this happened, which you unaccountably forgot to mention in your question.

But, in general, theft involves taking something with the intention of permanently depriving the owner. You took the phone, and you intended to deprive the owner of it, but not permanently. So that's not theft (though it might be another offence, like malicious interference with property. It depends, as I say, what the law is in the country where all this happened.)

You shouldn't have too much difficulty challenging any claim that you intended to take the phone permanently. Your friends (presumably) will all say that there was an agreement to prank the owner by hiding the phone, and you can show the text you tried to send. Given that, I doubt if any court would find it proven beyond reasonable doubt that you intended to deprive the owner permanently.

There are probably other charges that could be brought against you, but not theft.

Of course, both morally and legally you have to pay for the phone. You were both malicious and careless, and as a result the girl has lost her phone. You have to apologise to her, and you have to cover her financial losses - replace the phone at no cost to her. Once you do that, I suspect that all talk of criminal charges will go away.

Didn't she have insurance? Hopefully your phone kept a copy of the text you tried to send. You should keep it for evidence if the police do get involved. If you All decided to hide the girls phone, you are all responsible to a certain extent - maybe you could ask the others to share the cost of buying her a new phone? It would be a nice gesture on all your behalves. But they might not be feeling so generous - especially if they know who really stole it. You should never have gone home until you knew the phone was in safe hands. It sounds like an expensive mistake.

Just tell the police everything you know.

So who is to say that
- this girls did not find it and keep it?
and claim it was stolen
- someone who arrived later stole it
- someone in the group who encouraged/agreed with you to hide it
- did anyone else see you hide it (was it even well out of sight?) at the group or later

If anyone is liable it is the 'group' that decided to take it and hide (not steal) it
There's a duty of care, to take care of the 'borrowed' property.
but it is not solely yours - it was a group action and decision.

has no one tried to track it down.
I'd let the police get involved (sooner than later),
The police will dismiss it as unfortuneate but not stealing, and maybe the real thief will get nervous, just let it be known that the police will be looking for the 'real' thief, so it better turn up soon or else it will be more serious (you may be surprised how soon someone finds it suddenly!)