Crooks shocked when owner traced phone to shack

Cops stunned two crooks in an informal settlement when they swooped on the pair who were celebrating their profitable criminal activity with a couple of beers.

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Durban - The public are being urged to download locator apps to track stolen phones or tablets.

This advice comes after police shocked two crooks in an informal settlement near eMkhomazi when they swooped on the pair who were celebrating a morning of profitable criminal activity with a couple of quarts of beer in the sun.

Durban businessman Gavin Scott was with the police after he tracked the pair of thieves via his phone app when he discovered his belongings had been stolen from a holiday home in Clansthal, near Scottburgh, last weekend.

The men were picked up within three hours of the crime having been committed and, according to local security firms, locator apps are fast becoming “go-to” tech when it comes to crime.

Marshall Security spokesman, Kyle van Reenen, said yesterday that their company used such technology.

“The first thing we ask in any robbery is if there is anything which can be tracked, such as an iPad, cellphone or tablet.”

Blue Security Operations manager Brian Jackson said locator apps on cellphones were an efficient tool, but warned that criminals were also aware they could be tracked.

Meanwhile, speaking about the incident in eMkhomazi, Scott said the look on the suspects' faces when police closed in on them was one of shock and horror.

After discovering he had been robbed, Scott activated his “Find my iPhone” app via his daughter’s Samsung and started to track the intruders.

Once the app had been downloaded on to his daughter’s phone, they started tracking the suspects as they drove to Scottburgh police station.

Scottburgh police contacted the eMkhomazi SAPS and the K9 dog unit.

“I showed them on the app exactly where the suspects were in a nearby squatter camp. We started following the phone, and I ran up to a hut where two guys were sitting enjoying some quarts of beer. They stood up and as one tried to run the police officer stopped him and my phone... fell out of the suspect’s pocket.”

All his stolen goods were recovered within three hours of their having been stolen.

KwaZulu-Natal SAPS spokeswoman Captain Nqobile Gwala confirmed that two suspects aged 23 and 26 had appeared in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, August 10 on charges of housebreaking and theft in relation to the incident. The investigation was continuing.

Alan Cooper, tech writer for The Independent on Saturday's sister paper, the Sunday Tribune, advised that, regardless of which tablet or phone brand you have, you have to enable locations services before you can take advantage of the device's tracking capabilities.

“I strongly recommend doing a dummy run to be sure it works, and that you know what to do when your phone goes awol for real.”

Cooper’s advice on what to download:

* For phones running Google’s Android operating system, “Android Device Manager” is a free download from the Google Play store.

*If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can use Apple’s pre-installed “Find my iPhone” facility. To do this, visit iCloud.com from a web browser and log into your iCloud account.

* The Windows Phone equivalent can be accessed at account.microsoft.com/devices. You’ll need to sign into your Microsoft account.

* To find your BlackBerry phone, you must first install the BlackBerry Protect app. After that, you’ll be able to locate your phone by visiting protect.blackberry.com.

Independent on Saturday