Police quickly track down and return stolen phone with sentimental photos to Birmingham visitor
Police were happy to be able to put a smile back on the face of a visitor to Birmingham who had her mobile phone stolen on a night out and which contained sentimental photos of her family.
The lady had travelled from Reading for a night out in Birmingham city centre with friends when her phone was stolen from her bag.
She reported it tob police and the investigation was picked up by officers from Operation Willowvale, a team set up to tackle theft from people such as pickpockets and opportunist thieves.
"We look at charging offenders and attempt to reduce the number of thefts from the person offences but we also look at reuniting stolen property with their rightful owners," officers explained.
The woman explained to officers in the city that the stolen phone had pinged to an address in Sutton Coldfield but she had delayed in reporting it because she had lost hope in getting it back.
The Willowvale team attended the address and spoke to people living there who claimed they found a phone on a wheelie bin while out walking and decided to take it in to try and find the owner and keep it safe until the owner could be found.
They handed the phone back to officers and they were able to give the woman the good news.
PC Dylan Barnes, from local CID at Stechford, said: “The lady was ecstatic to hear that we had managed to recover the phone especially since she had given up on any chance of finding it. The victim has then decided to make the trip from Reading to Stechford Police Station to collect the phone. She was really upset as she had sentimental photos of her family on the phone and was desperate to get it back so it was lovely to give it back to her.
“Operation Willowvale has had some great successes since the team was formed and we were only too happy to reunite the lady with her phone.”
