Exclusive: Phone Technology Helps Track Robbery Suspect
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An exclusive Eyewitness News story reveals a fast moving theft suspect, who snatched an iPhone from a passenger aboard a Broad Street subway train at the Hunting Park Station July 17th, wasn't fast enough to out distance SEPTA police officers, who used the phone's high tech security system to track him down.
Surveillance video shows the suspect grabbing the device, then taking off as the train stopped, and doors opened, with the victim in pursuit.
But moments later, a SEPTA officer arrives and with the help of the stolen phone's GPS tracking device, he is able to monitor the suspect's every move, eventually arresting him in the 2400 block of North Opal Street, several miles away, a short time later.
Watch The Video ...
SEPTA officer Andrew Lachowicz, who made the arrest, described the suspect as "surprised" when he arrived and placed him in handcuffs.
Lachowicz says the victim was glad not only to see the arrest, but to recover her phone, which police say, the suspect threw into a bush as officers moved in.
SEPTA says as part of a new system-wide effort to fight phone and electronic device thefts, getting a security system to protect your phone is an inexpensive and effective way to protect yourself.
Reported by Walt Hunter, CBS 3
