Team Effort Leads to Rare Recovery of Stolen Property

One of the greatest frustrations for victims of property crimes and police alike is that it is rare indeed for stolen belongings to be recovered and returned intact to their rightful owners.

So it was gratifying to all concerned when, after a recent theft in Tosa Village, most of the items stolen, including all the most valuable and personal things, were quickly recovered miles away from the scene – even though the thief was not caught.

It took collaboration between one of the victims, a police officer and, by extension, Apple Inc., to track the thief and discover the cache.

It began late in the afternoon a couple of weeks ago as the dinner staff was coming in at , 7754 Harwood Ave. They would typically enter through a rear door that would otherwise be locked most of the time.

Someone apparently knew this routine. According to Firefly employees, the manner of the ensuing theft matched a similar incident a week earlier in a business below the restaurant. This day, a manager saw a man or older boy walking away hurriedly from the restaurant carrying two purses.

She told the staff to check their lockers, located just inside the back entrance, and sure enough, two servers were missing those belongings.

Some clothing that had been in the backpack was found nearby – turned in by a customer at nearby – and one purse was found by its owner on a picnic table just outside Firefly, missing only the $40 in cash it had contained.

But there was no trace of the other purse and the backpack, both belonging to the same employee. Both were relatively expensive custom or designer pieces, and inside were some valuable or sentimental personal belongings. And among those items was an iPhone 4. And on that iPhone was a Mobile Me application that can signal the phone's whereabouts.

The victim logged in on another device and she and the officer watched with interest as the missing phone appeared as a blip on a screen – a moving blip, going north on North 76th Street. Clearly it was in a moving car, and so the officer took off after it, keeping in contact with the owner.

Farther and farther north it went, and closer and closer the officer got, but well before he could catch up, the blip wavered, hovered, then settled just to the east of 76th at Good Hope Road.

Directions phoned in by the victim led the officer to a parking lot behind the Pick ‘n Save store at 7401 W. Good Hope Rd., where he hoped to find the thief parked and going through his ill-gotten goods. But the lot was mostly empty of cars, none of them occupied.

Still, the app said the phone was here – but where? The officer noticed a large metal bin used by Pick 'n Save to collect items donated for charity. He opened the lid, and though he couldn't see into the bin itself, saw a Mazda car key on a yellow fob caught on the door hinge.

He asked the Firefly employee if she had a car key in the purse or backpack, and if so what kind. Yes, Mazda, on a yellow fob, she said.

The officer went to the store, found the manager, and he cut the lock off the bin. Inside, minus only cash and credit cards, were the backpack and purse and everything else – including the silently communicating phone.