Dec 29, 2008 7:00 pm US/Eastern
Karma: Thieves Caught After 'Pocket-Dialing' 911
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (CBS) ―
Have you ever rubbed up against your cell phone in your pocket, causing it to randomly dial someone in your contact list without you realizing it? A similar situation happened to a man in Middletown – a man whose apparent plan to steal car parts was foiled when he "pocket-dialed" 911 in the middle of the act!
Sometime around 3 a.m. Monday at Sierra Auto Body Parts in Middletown, police say Andre Pryce and Fabian Corley were breaking into cars to steal parts. A third party, Xavier Jenkins, was waiting nearby in a getaway car, according to police.
The suspects were captured quickly by police because one of the suspects accidentally called them from his own cell phone.
"The criminal, or defendant actually called the police department accidentally and conversations were heard by the dispatcher," said Middletown Sgt. Jay Tobin.
On the police tapes one of the suspects is heard saying: "You better come! We're getting the tires…just shut the car off. They're going to think we're stealing it!"
That's when the dispatcher radioed officers saying, "It sounds like they're ripping a car off…it dialed in their pocket by accident. They're taking the tires off a car."
Police say when they arrived they caught two of the suspects in the act stealing parts from the cars. The suspects tried to run, jumped a fence, but there was no way out.
John Sierra Jr., who runs the shop, told CBS 2 that because of tough times, they'd been keeping customers' cars longer while they get back on their feet.
"Kind of like pay as you go along, so we're trying to help and it turns out this morning they broke into a couple vehicles, and it's really not a good time," he said.
If it wasn't enough that one of the culprits dialed 911 by accident, but the dispatcher kept the line open, monitored it and used GPS technology to pinpoint the location and tell cops exactly where to go.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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