Victim finds cellphone thief’s selfie in her cloud storage, police say
A cellphone thief might have unknowningly revealed her identity to Bay Area police after she snapped a smiling selfie on the stolen device that was uploaded to its owner’s data storage cloud, police said.
Detectives are now looking for the cheery thief, whose photograph is plastered all over the victim’s cloud, El Cerrito police said Wednesday.
The victim, a high school student who was not identified, told detectives that she immediately recognized the woman in the new selfie as the person who attacked her and took her phone, police said.
The robbery occurred about noon on Nov. 5 as the victim walked on Central Avenue in El Cerrito, a Bay Area city wedged between Richmond and Berkeley. A vehicle pulled up beside the girl and a woman got out and confronted her, police said.
The women demanded the girl’s cellphone and backpack, police said. After the girl refused, the woman punched her in the head, knocking her unconscious, took the phone and backpack and got back into the car and drove away, police said.
The girl was later taken to an area hospital for medical treatment.
Days later, the girl found the woman’s selfie in her cloud.
Anyone with information about the robbery or the woman is urged to call the police department at (510) 215-4400.
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