Burglars caught by iPhone
Techno whizzes: the girls who played a part in catching the robbers, from left: Emily Jolly, Chelsea Dennison, Denise Holton and Nellie Heys. The girls are shown here in the window used to enter the house, and with the items they recovered. Photo courtesy of Herald Sun.
FOUR South Gippsland-raised girls went from university students to part time detectives after their Brunswick home was broken into early last week.
Nellie Heys, Chelsea Dennison and Denise Holton, all originally from Leongatha, were at home last Tuesday night when unbeknownst to the women, burglars ransacked the house they share with Emily Jolly, originally from Loch.
Ms Heys said they were all in the loungeroom and upon going to bed around 2am, she noticed her bedroom window and blind were wide open and her computer was gone.
“We realised then Chelsea’s computer and her digital camera was taken, all our handbags and just knick knacks, worthless things,” she said.
“They raided our wardrobes and even stripped bed sheets; it seems like they took their time.”
In total, around $8000 worth of possessions were stolen.
Ms Heys said both their front door and laundry door were open and the burglars had dropped things on the way, which police used for fingerprints.
It was not until after the women had given their statement, that a policeman jokingly asked if one of them had a GPS tracker on their iPhone and Ms Heys realised she had installed one only months before.
“I only thought I’d use it if I’d lost my phone. I never thought it would be for this reason,” she said.
“As soon as he mentioned it, we tracked it from another phone and straight away we saw where it was.”
The map located the phone less than 300 metres away from the women’s own home, with police informing them the suspects were already wanted for questioning over another incident.
The police left around 4am and said the officers taking over at 7am resumed the search.
When Ms Heys’ mother called her daughter’s phone around 7am, a policeman answered and said a number of the stolen items had been recovered.
“Between 4am and 7am, the police got all our things and arrested the people,” Ms Heys said.
Nearly everything of high value was recovered, including two Macbook Pro laptops and their handbags, however around $80 in cash and Ms Heys’ car and house keys were not found.
The housemates are currently looking for a new place to live.
“We really want to get out,” Ms Heys said, with the incident the second break-in since they moved in six months ago.
“No one has stayed here since it happened. We’re all petrified.”
Ms Heys said she now highly recommends anyone with an iPhone to install the tracking device.
“My mum has already sent out an email to family and friends telling them to put it on their phone,” she said.
“We managed to get $8000 worth of our things back, and if it weren’t for my iPhone, we’d only have had fingerprints to go off.”
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