iPhone Thief Busted When His Stolen iPhone is Stolen Again
By: NBC News
Updated: January 28, 2013
Apple iPhones have become so prone to being snatched by thieves and robbers that the criminal act has inspired a nickname -- "Apple picking" -- as well as a significant spike in the New York City crime rate. And now and then, this Apple picking results in utterly bizarre stories.
Take, for example, the tale of a thief who stole an iPhone that another thief stole from a teenage girl.
The incident took place on a single day last November, according to a recent story by the New York Times' Michael Wilson. It began when a 16-year-old girl's white iPhone 4S -- a last-generation device -- was snatched by a boy who'd approached her with two of his friends. The girl told two nearby police officers, who drove around with the teen in a failed attempt to find the boys. Then one of the officers suggested calling the phone.
Imagine the officer's surprise when another police officer answered.
Turns out, when the boy attempted to sell the iPhone in another neighborhood, his would-be customer -- a man by the name of Jean Louis Colsun -- did something the kid should've been ready for. He grabbed the iPhone and ran. So the boy, like his own victim from earlier in the day, flagged down police officers.
The kid got creative too, a public information officer for the New York Police Department's Office of the Deputy Commissioner told TODAY.com. Rather than simply telling cops that Colsun grabbed his phone and ran away, the kid accused Colsun of trying to sell him his own iPhone, stolen at some other imagined point in time.
Unfortunately for the young, imaginative thief, the officers looking into the two incidents caught on quickly. Both the teen girl and the boy were brought to the local precinct and asked to unlock the iPhone, which had a security code set up. The girl succeeded, the boy did not. Both the boy, who remains unnamed as he is a minor, and Colsun ended up in handcuffs while the girl got back her iPhone.
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