Burglary victim leads Anchorage police to stolen goods using find-my-phone app
Daniel Smith returned to his Honda CRV after a walk at Earthquake Park Wednesday to find a window shattered and his backpack missing. Two iPhones, paperwork, a wallet – all gone in yet another Anchorage smash-and-grab.
It wasn’t until this morning, as he filled out an online police report, that Smith realized one of the vanished phones might still be active.
“I was thinking, 'Let's go ahead and try and pull up iCloud,” he said.
The phone was somewhere in Mountain View according to the locator, which allows users to track down lost or stolen online devices through a website or app. Smith met police in the neighborhood, where the signal grew more precise.
“Now-a-days people have a trigger happy finger. It’s better to have the police take care of it first,” he said.
He pinpointed multi-family housing on the 800 block of North Flower St.
Police investigated and found the missing iPhone 6S and 7-plus, Smith said, hardware worth as much as $1,500.
As a tow truck idled on the corner this afternoon, a police officer sat nearby. Two stolen motorcycles also had been found, he said.
We have asked police for more information on this case, including any potential charges or related thefts. This story will be updated when those details become available.
