Thief loses stolen iPhone to another thief, calls police and gets arrested

On an afternoon in November 2012, three boys approached a 16-year-old girl, who was talking to someone on her iPhone 4S in Prospect Park, snatched the iPhone from her, and ran away from the park.

The girl contacted Officer Denisse Pacheco for help. Unfortunately, the thieves were not found in or around the park. However, the police kept on searching for him.

The thief ran away from the park and tried to sell the stolen iPhone 4 to a man who was walking down the street. That man came to know that the iPhone was stolen; he grabbed the smartphone from the thief and ran away. The first thief approached a nearby police car and filed a complaint with police officer Arnoldo Martinez. The police officers arrested the second thief and took him to jail. Now, both thieves were in police custody.

Officer Denisse Pacheco called the phone number in order to talk to the thief. Sgt. Arnoldo Martinez answered the call, and both officers understood the matter. They gave the iPhone 4 back to the girl. She was very happy to get her expensive iPhone back again. The original thief was put behind bars.

The police officers also taught the owner of the iPhone how she could find her iPhone using the Find My iPhone service. This service works with the help of GPS tracking. Aside from Operation ID, they also conducted sting operations in the nearby subway so as to arrest people trying to flog stolen smartphones and other electronic devices.