A Manhattan resident who had her iPhone brazenly snatched by a passing thief on a bicycle reported the stolen device to New York City cops who rushed into action. Their pursuit took them to the edge of the island where the thief attempted to escape by diving into the East River, but the police quickly followed suit and captured him, retrieving the unfortunately ruined handset.
It all started on a sunny Wednesday morning in Manhattan, where a 13-year-old girl was walking along the streets, gazing at her device as most New York residents seem to do nowadays. Apparently, she was viewed as an easy target by the bike-riding criminal who swooped up behind her, grabbed her iPhone and pedaled away. The distressed girl notified her mother, and together, the two visited New York City's 17th Precinct, where the quick-thinking cops decided to utilize the Find My iPhone app to try and locate the device and the person who had stolen it.
The app led them about 30 blocks south and several long blocks east of the crime scene to 23rd Street along New York's East River. Using the app, they were able to pinpoint the thief, whom they identified as Eulofio Cardona, age 33. When Cardona realized that he had been found, he took the extreme measure of actually diving into New York City's polluted East River, which, by all accounts, is not clean or safe for swimming.
Rather than chalking up the pursuit as lost, the officers, after initially ordering Cardona to exit the water to no avail, called for backup from NYPD's Emergency Services Unit, where two officers, Detectives Keith Connelly and Gregory Welch, arrived and decided to suit up and dive in after him. After a water-bound struggle, the cops were able to get the thief out of the water and march him back up to the 17th Precinct, where he was booked and charged with grand larceny.
The NYPD Special Ops Unit took to Twitter to commend the hero cops, tweeting, "Great job this morning - #ESU Dts Connelly & Welch dove into the East River to apprehend a perp wanted for Robbery."
Although Cardona was apprehended, unfortunately, the device itself was ruined. If the victim sticks with Apple for her replacement device, she might want to wait until September, when the new iPhone 7 will be unveiled. The device is rumored to be the first waterproof iPhone.
