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Teen Catches Mugger on MySpace

by Tim Stevens on February 28, 2008 at 02:51 PM

Teen Catches Cell Phone Thief on MySpacePicture this: you're walking down a busy city street chatting on your cell phone when someone runs up behind you, grabs your phone, and runs off. What do you do? Call the police (from someone else's phone)? Shrug your shoulders and be glad that's all they took? Or, do you do what 16-year-old Yudelka Polanco did: go on MySpace and start doing some digital sleuthing.

After Polanco got a new phone to replace her stolen one she realized that her assailant had used her old phone with its SIM card in there, which identifies the phone as hers and stores her address book and history. When she activated her new phone, her provider sync'd up her information and the thief's online activity, including his e-mail address, showed up. She then proceeded to search for the mugger's e-mail address on MySpace and got a hit.

But, the profile was private, so she got a friend to chat him up and get added to his friend's list. Once able to get inside the profile she was able to see more pictures of the guy in question, enough to make an identification. That was enough for the police who, presented with this evidence, arrested 16-year-old Victor Hernandez for the crime.

So, proof that crime doesn't pay, but MySpace does!

From wcbstv.com

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Tags: cell phones, CellPhones, MySpace, Theft

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