Thief "Butt-Dials" 911, Tips Off Cops

May 5th, 2011

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s5Kf211h Thief "Butt Dials" 911, Tips Off Cops

A thief in upstate New York unknowingly “butt-dialed” 911 as he and two accomplices drove around, plotting their next break-in but alerting law enforcement to their nefarious activities.

The Clay, N.Y.-based crook accidentally sat on his phone, calling the town’s emergency center, where an alert dispatcher was able to clearly hear the plotting, and help foil the gang’s future heist late last month.

Onodaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh said police were already on the case of the three burglary suspects when a 911 dispatcher received the call, understood what was happening and shared with law enforcement the crooks’ talk about their next robbery and their surroundings, which helped pinpoint their location.

While the police located the suspect’s car as it drove from one burglary to the next, the dispatcher, still connected to the thief’s mobile phone, heard the car being pulled over, and the police asking for license and registration information — a real tribute to the phone’s wireless connection.

The suspect’s car was loaded down with tools stolen from a local business near Syracuse, N.Y., and the men were arrested and charged with grand larceny and stolen property charges — but nothing related to the ill-advised mobile phone use.

In January, an Illinois man accidentally butt-dialed his wife while driving home from work, sending out a 30-man SWAT team after his wife mistakenly though he was being kidnapped.

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