Stolen Phone Tracking Device Led Cops to Thieves

South Orange Police said phone tracking software helped them locate a stolen phone and the three people accused of stealing it.

Police said Tyheem Pollard, 18 of Newark, and two teenagers, also from Newark, were arrested after they were identified by a Seton Hall student who was punched in the face and robbed of his phone.

The student, who was robbed on August 29, said he was walking towards the university from Ivy Hill along Wilden Place when the three approached him and demanded his phone. When the student refused to hand it over, he told police he was punched and that the phone was taken. He said the three people who robbed him then got into a silver Dodge Neon and drove east into Newark.

However, using the phone’s tracking software, South Orange detectives tracked the alleged thieves to a storefront on Stuyvesant Avenue in Newark on Aug. 29. The phone was recovered, along with the Dodge Neon, which had been stolen from Orange.

In a message sent to the Neighborhood Watch groups in South Orange, South Orange police chief James Chelel recommended that residents install such software on their electronic devices. "Most of these apps are free. This is not a guarantee that the police will find the suspects involved or recover the stolen property, however in many cases it assists us in an investigation. It worked  perfectly when a robbery took place on Wilden Place."