Young Black Street Urchin in Custody After Taking Selfies with White Man’s Stolen Phone

WTKR
July 5, 2015

Untitled 1
Joe Harris had his car broken into and his smartphone stolen by a Black street urchin.

A 16-year-old boy is now in custody and is expected to be charged with the theft of an iPhone stolen from a car in a Virginia Beach neighborhood last month.

The owner of the iPhone, Joe Harris, says after the phone was stolen, nearly 40 pictures and three videos — including selfies, started popping up on his iCloud account.

“I feel sorry for him,” Harris said. “Without your help, he probably wouldn’t have been seen.”

But within an hour of the story and the pictures airing on NewsChannel 3, Virginia Beach Police say they started receiving tips on the identity of the person in the pictures.

promo260148211
The dirty looking thief then took selfies which got uploaded to the owner’s account.

“The broadcast helped by getting the pictures out there,” said Virginia Beach Detective Christopher Lazar, who was working the case. “One anonymous tip gave us a Facebook account and a Facebook name, then we had tips from another agency that confirmed this gentleman was our suspect.”

His identity has since been confirmed and he is in custody, according to Virginia Beach Police. He has not yet been formally charged but police confidently say he is the suspect in the theft.

“I’m so excited,” Harris added. “It’s not just about a cell phone. The cell phone was worth only $50 dollars or $100 dollars. It’s just going into other people’s property, it’s personal.