Cell phone thief hinders the search for missing persons – then the police are at your door

Created: 08/04/2022, 11:45 am

By: Jennifer Battaglia

A cell phone thief recently impeded the search for a man with dementia.

The woman had taken a cellphone she found and hadn't handed it in.

When the owner of the mobile phone went missing two days later, the police finally rang the young woman's doorbell.

Cell phone tracking made it possible.

The woman is now facing legal consequences.

© René Ruprecht / dpa

A woman finds someone else's cell phone and puts it in her pocket.

Two days later, the police are at her door: the mobile phone belongs to a man who has since disappeared.

Penzberg – A woman from Penzberg (Weilheim-Schongau district) finds someone else's mobile phone on the town square.

She doesn't take it to the lost-and-found office or the police, but puts it in her pocket.

Two days later, the police are at her door: as part of a search for missing persons, the officers located the mobile phone in the hope of finding the owner of the mobile phone, a 62-year-old with mild dementia.

Mobile phone thief hinders missing person search: Large police force in action

"It was very annoying," says Susanne Kettel, deputy chief of the Penzberg police department.

"We had already been looking for the missing person for several hours." The missing resident of a Penzberg retirement home was reported missing around noon on August 3rd.

First, a trail led to Langau near Bad Heilbrunn - there witnesses saw the missing person at a bus stop.

The area around the Langau and the banks of the Loisach were searched with a helicopter, the rescue dog squadron and in cooperation with the water rescue service and the Penzberg and Sindelsdorf-Bichl fire brigades.

Meanwhile, the police tried again and again to reach the missing person's mobile phone.

"It was on and ringing," said police officer Kettel.

That's why they finally decided to use mobile phone tracking.

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Mobile phone thief hinders missing person search: Woman has to reckon with legal consequences

The mobile phone was then targeted in the Penzberg city area.

What the police couldn't know: the missing 62-year-old had lost his mobile phone two days earlier in the town square in Penzberg.

A young woman found the cell phone and pocketed it.

"You are now threatened with legal consequences for embezzlement," says Kettel.

"It will also be checked whether she has to pay part of the costs incurred for the search."

The officers reacted "slightly indignant" when they did not find the missing person in the 23-year-old woman's apartment.

She admitted to having found the cell phone, but not having passed it on to the police or the lost-and-found office.

(Our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter keeps you regularly informed about all the important stories from your region. Register here.)

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Cell phone thief hinders missing person search: 62-year-old safely reappeared

After the second track did not bring the desired success either, the search for the missing person was called off on the night of August 4th.

"We had no clues as to where the man could have been," says Kettel, explaining the decision.

Nevertheless, everything turned out to be good: the man was found safe and sound in the town of Bad Tölz on August 4th.

"Around 6:30 a.m. we received a tip from a witness," says Kettel.

Officials would have bought the man a pretzel and water and then brought him back to Penberg.

Police do not know where he stayed overnight.

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