Would-be Car Thief ‘Pocket-Dials’ Police
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – A planned evening of thievery turned comical in New York, when three teenagers, in essence, called in their own crime. It’s the high-tech version of leaving your wallet at the scene of the crime. The criminals led police right to them.
At about 3 a.m. Dec. 29, three young men were trying to break into cars and strip them of parts at Sierra Auto Body Parts on Midland Avenue in Middletown, police reported. Two teenagers were in a car while the third waited nearby as the getaway driver.
One of the suspects unknowingly bumped his cell phone’s emergency button and it dialed 911, said Middletown Sgt. Jay Tobin. The 911 dispatcher was puzzled at first, but stuck on the phone long enough to overhear the criminal suspects’ plot and got it on record.
All cell phones have emergency GPS tracking capability, ordered by the government in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. So the dispatcher tracked the phone by its GPS signal to the scene of the crime and sent a patrolman that was in the area to the location.
At one point on the police tape, one of the suspects can be heard saying to the getaway driver, “You better come. We’re getting the tires … just shut the car off. They’re going to think we’re stealing it.”
After which the dispatcher relayed to the patrolman: “It sounds like they’re ripping a car off … it dialed in their pocket by accident. They’re taking the tires off a car.”
Police arrived while the crime was still in progress and, while they tried to run, Fabian Corley, Andre Pryce and Xavier Jenkins were arrested. Each of the three teens faces several misdemeanor charges.
The manager of the auto parts business, John Sierra Jr., spoke to a television crew and admitted that his yard, full of cars, might have been a lure to the young men. Because of the bad economy, many customers were unable to pay the costs of repair, so he had been keeping customer’s cars longer.
Tags: Crime, GPS Tracking, Law Enforcement
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