iPhone News Updated

Tracking device on stolen iPad leads cops to the thief’s home (where they discover dozens more stolen Christmas gifts)

Tracking device on stolen iPad leads cops to the thief’s home (where they discover dozens more stolen Christmas gifts)

An iPhone application was used to track down a stolen iPad and the man who allegedly took it from underneath a family’s Christmas tree.

Ken Gootnick from Los Angeles, California was woken at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning by a thief ransacking his family’s presents.

Mr Gootnick chased the robber but he managed to escape with his swag – including an Apple iPad.

Mr Gootnick switched on the ‘Find my iPhone’ app that sends out a signal to the device.

App-rehended: Patrick Krewson allegedly stole an iPad from a family’s Christmas tree. He was arrested after the iPad’s locator device showed he lived nearby

Stolen: The iPad was installed with an application called Find My iPhone to track it if it was stolen or misplaced. The victim activated a loud sound so police could find it

Using his computer, the victim was then able to locate the iPad on a map, and alerted police to its whereabouts – just a few houses away.

‘I activated the sound and [deputies] basically followed the sound,’ Gootnick told CBS News.

‘It was pretty loud,’ Deputy Dustin Morales added. ‘I was about 20-30 feet away from it and I could hear it pretty clearly.’

Patrick Krewson, 20, of Vista, San Diego, was arrested at a neighbour’s home in connection with the theft.

During a search of Krewson’s home, officers also discovered two flat-screen televisions, a laptop and more than 40 stolen presents allegedly stolen from a family in his hometown.

Victim: When Ken Gootnick’s iPad was stolen, he activated an ‘app’ that located the device. A map on his computer showed exactly where the iPad was

Shock: Gifts stolen from Jennifer Smith, pictured, were also found in the suspect’s house. He had been the first person to comfort her after the theft, she said

When the gifts had been taken from Jennifer Smith’s home just days earlier, Krewson, who lived in a flat below, had shown concern, she said.

‘He was the first person that comforted me, saying, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe these people would do this”,’ she told CBS News.

‘He even wrapped up some of his own CDs for us.’

A deputy said: ‘When Malibu/Lost Hills deputies notified the Vista victim that her Christmas presents had been located in time to give them to the children for Christmas, she began to cry.’

Another deputy added: ‘We saved their Christmas’, according to CBS.

Krewson was arrested on suspicion of burglary and is being held in lieu of $70,000 bail.

He pleaded not guilty to one count each of first-degree burglary with a person present, grand theft of personal property and forgery.

If convicted in the Los Angeles County incident, Krewson could be jailed for six years and eight months.

San Diego authorities will file extra charges against Krewson for the earlier burglary from Jennifer Smith’s home.

[Thanks: http://www.dailymail.co.uk]

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