Crime & Safety

How Not To Get Away With Theft: Steal iPhone, Post Selfies On Victim's Facebook Page

This one's out of the dumb criminals handbook.

This one's out of the Dumb Thief's Handbook.

An Illinois woman steals an iPhone 5, which could have ended with no real story, just another theft, in this case victimizing Sandy Barbee in O'Fallon, IL, a suburb of St. Louis.

But then this happened: The woman who stole the phone somehow decided it would be a good idea to not just take a selfie using the phone, but then to post that selfie on the victim's Facebook page.

Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As first reported by Shawndrea Thomas of Fox 2 in St. Louis, Barbee and her daughter, Alicia Warren, were shopping Tuesday at a Sam’s Club for work supplies. She left her iPhone in a bathroom that she used, and it was gone when she went to retrieve it.

“Without my phone, I’m really lost because I don’t really have anything, I don’t have a house phone; and, that’s for my business, where I work at,” Barbee told Fox 2.

Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

She may, though, have her phone back soon, because the thief is apparently a better photographer than she is a crook: Lt. Rob Schmitdke told Patch that investigators know who she is, and they're in the process of locating and arresting her.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Town And Country-Manchester