September 6, 2013

"Find My Phone" app Leads to Red-Handed Arrest of Thief



In our “Interesting Call of the Week” Category, we have this:




Yesterday a couple parked their truck on Harvey West Blvd to watch a little Pop Warner Football.  When they returned back home, they realized a wallet and a cell phone had been taken from their truck.  


Using their “Find My Phone” app, they were able to track movement of the phone.  They tracked the movement of the phone from downtown to the Homeless Services Center at 115 Coral Street.  At this point they called the police.  When Officer Fincutter arrived, the victim rode with her as they tracked the phone across the pedestrian footbridge over the San Lorenzo River to Felker Street.  Down Felker Street to Ferrell’s Donuts on Ocean Street. 
The victim was able to send an “alert” to her phone, when out of Ferrell’s Donuts comes or suspect with a donut and cup of coffee in hand….and a phone beeping in his pocket that he can’t shut off. 


OK, OK let’s take a minute for you to get all the "cops at the donut shop" jokes out of your mind…. :-)
 
Our suspect is arrested red-handed with the victim’s phone and credit cards from the stolen wallet.  A further search found burglary tools, cocaine and heroin on our suspect.  We also located this watch. 


If you recognize the watch and it belongs to you, please contact our investigations unit at (831) 420-5820 to provide proof of ownership and make a report of the stolen property. 


Here is our suspect



This is Dennis Allen Ballard, 45 years old.  He lists his address as "transient" or "115 Coral Street".

Mr. Ballard has an extensive history of arrests including drug and trespassing charges.  In fact, this year alone he has been arrested by our officers 8 times.  He is on active probation 4x over for his past arrests.