iPhone Thief Takes His Own Mug Shot

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Posted March 24, 2009 at 6:47pm by iClarified · 11773 views

An iPhone thief has been arrested by police after taking his own photo with the device, according to a New York Post report.

Sayaka Fukuda, a 29 year old Manhatten woman led the police to the clueless crook who stole her iPhone after he used it to take pictures of himself and send them via her e-mail.

Fukuda was on the N train platform at the Fifth Avenue station near 59th Street at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 21 when Daquan Mathis and an accomplice came up and grabbed the iPhone from her. After struggling with Mathis he threw her purse onto a train and got on.

"I kept screaming. 'No! No! No!' " Fukuda recalled.

"It was a scary night," she told The Post. "It was stupid that I took the train that late."

After reporting the theft to police Fukuda went home and checked her email to find a message in her outbox.

"I knew I didn't send anything. I opened the attachment, and there he was with his black and red knitted [Spider-Man] hat. The same hat I described to the police officers."

She sent the photo to the police who quickly identified it as Mathis. Meanwhile, Fukuda e-mailed him, "Thank you for your picture. I sent them to the cops, you're going to get arrested soon."

Mathis e-mailed back the next day, "I will kill you! I know where you live, I know where you work. I'll send people."

Fukuda said, "When I read this, I was crying and shaking. But I wrote him back anyway,"
She begged him to do the right thing, writing, "Don't ruin your life for a cellphone. Go to the cops before it gets worse."

The thief wrote back, "You're right, but I'm not going to the cops."

The police apprehended Mathis on Thursday and he has been charged with robbery and grand larceny.

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Mo Fo - March 27, 2009 at 9:24pm

TYPICAL

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Christian - March 24, 2009 at 9:38pm

It is incredible that the police from anyplace around the world do something about the thiefs, but here in Mexico City, even when my cousin went to the police station after a he was assaulted with his friend and told them that his mobileme account was registering all the new numbers of the thief they didn't do something, they just said something like: "i don't know, if it is real, what i can do is take you at the same place and check if he is still there" ...whattt???? of course my cousin told him, "no sir, thank you very much for your great work" FUCKIN' POLICE MEN AT MEXICO CITY!! if this threat can reach upper levels so my voice can be heard it would be great!! Regards, from the infamous city of Mexico

Naz - March 24, 2009 at 7:16pm

This is another proof that thieves are idiots. If they are smart they would have earned instead of stealing. This thief is proof to the theory. What an idiot!!

DistortedLoop - March 24, 2009 at 7:15pm

I suppose it's nice the chick got her phone back because of this, but the "I will kill you, I know where you live, I know where you work" threats only drive home the importance of PIN LOCKING YOUR DAMNED PHONE. I can't believe there are people out there running around with all their personal information, unprotected in any way on a highly theft-tempting device like the iPhone. I'd rather lose my iPhone permanently than worry about home invasion/robbery or identity theft for a very long time after the phone was stolen/lost.

Mr. Q - March 24, 2009 at 7:14pm

What a dumbass. If I were a thief and gotten a hold of an Iphone, the first thing I would do is wipe it clean and never use it with that carrier or sell it.

Oskar Krawczyk - March 24, 2009 at 7:10pm

Why am I not surprised ...