Cellphone 'Pocket Dials' 911, Leads To Suspect's Arrest

CLAY, N.Y. -- An ill-timed, inadvertent 911 call led police to three larceny suspects overheard planning break-ins in upstate New York.

Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh says police already looking for a suspicious person got the unlikely assist when one of the men "pocket dialed" his cellphone's emergency number while driving near the scene of an earlier heist.

As a dispatcher relayed the conversation to deputies, the men discussed their plans, described their surroundings and even commented, "there go the cops now."

Walsh says that was enough for a deputy to turn around and stop the Kia Sportage full of tools stolen from a business in the Syracuse suburb of Clay. The dispatcher then heard the driver being asked for his license and registration.

The men arrested April 26 face grand larceny and stolen property charges.

Comments

[ramblingjohnny]

08:33 AM on 05/08/2011

If I was paranoid I would say the cops used a cell sniffer to fish for info around the crime scene and that how they nabbed them. But they would never do that would they...

[CrackRocket]

06:28 AM on 05/08/2011

That story seems highly unlikely. I suppose its possible but there are a lot of things more likely than that. It seems more likely to me that the police instituted a program to hack phones of people within the phone cell of a crime and fish for intel. I admit it seems far fetched but no less likely than a criminal but dialing 911 minutes after a heist. This story stinks.

[RedDogBear]

09:09 AM on 05/08/2011

"pocket dialed" i.e., the phone was inadvertently nudged and unknown to the thief dialed 911. Sounds very credible to me. Something similar happened to me once actually. A friend of mine was arrested on some minor charge and as the cops were arresting her, her phone was hit and it redialed the last number called which was mine and no one at her end knew that had happened. I didn't answer the call so it went automatically to voice mail and when I checked voice mail later I had a message that went on for several minutes where I could hear her talking to the police and them talking back.

[gomac54]

01:37 PM on 05/08/2011

It would be even more unlikely if they had used the device pictured in the article... an iPod.

[ChiProgressive]

06:36 PM on 05/07/2011

I once pocket dialed and it led to me getting fired.

[Benjamin Rosenfeld]

08:52 AM on 05/06/2011

This just goes to show that when planning a crime, power down your cell phone and remove the battery.

[ebanks84]

07:37 PM on 05/05/2011

Damn, the phone was smarter than the men! Go figure!

[Querent]

04:59 PM on 05/05/2011

Instant karma.

[MarcoEsquandolas]

01:08 PM on 05/05/2011

Darwin Award

[nowpolitics]

11:10 AM on 05/05/2011

Technology rocks.