iPhone Thief Takes His Own Mug Shot

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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