man allegedly stole a woman Yolanda volunteer’s cellphone, takes selfies, didn’t know cellphone automatically sends the selfies to Dropbox

the alleged cellphone thief who took a selfie

it’s an amazing story, one that can probably make you cry, laugh and get angry all at the same time, or one after the other. we saw an article online about it (http://www.wheninmanila.com/thief-steals-from-volunteers-helping-typhoon-victims-unknowingly-uploads-selfies-to-the-internet/) and was shown at TV Patrol last night.

a certain NJ Torres (name from TV Patrol)  was doing volunteer work for Yolanda survivors at Villamor Airbase and while doing work there, she had the unfortunate experience of her cellphone, a Samsung S4 was stolen from her.

days after, Torres found out who stole her phone or at least know how the alleged thief looks like. the alleged thief took selfies. but what the alleged thief didn’t know was that the cellphone was automatically sending all the pictures taken by the cellphone to the cellphone owner’s Dropbox account. the owner we suppose went to a computer and most likely to her surprise or disgust or both sees the uploaded selfies of the person who may have stolen her cellphone.

it’s an amazing story of several stories:

• primarily for us it’s one of disgust that people actually go to a place and activity that is all about strangers who are charitable enough to do volunteer work for victims of Yolanda with the intent of stealing cellphones of the volunteers. instead of helping, this alleged thief was there to steal and take advantage of the volunteers.
• one more count of disgust that the alleged thief would have the gall to take selfies from a stolen cellphone
•  a triumph of technology and social media where the technology silently and worked incognito to reveal to the owner and the world the disgusting crime of some humans. social media contributed as we saw this story on the internet and when we posted the story at twitter (@wawam), it got multiple retweets from many people, most we did not know and did not follow. the effect of that is this man’s face, the alleged thief, is known to many of us and hopefully others will be warned and eventually caught

when we tweeted the story, it actually caught the attention of police authorities. we are hoping the alleged thief will be caught and made to answer for his crime and spanked with a stinging lesson from technology and social media.

@wawam: Man steals phone fr volunteer helping #YolandaPH survivors, then uploads his selfie to FB pic.twitter.com/ntcLWpYHRI @NCRPOReact

— PNP Tweets (@PNPhotline) November 25, 2013

these are the other selfies taken by the alleged thief.

from the article (http://www.wheninmanila.com/thief-steals-from-volunteers-helping-typhoon-victims-unknowingly-uploads-selfies-to-the-internet/)

I just want to give a friendly warning to all of you especially who are volunteering now in Villamor Airbase and other relief operations. Some people are just here to really take advantage during times like these.

As you might know, I lost some valuables last Tuesday, November 19, while doing volunteer work in Villamor Airbase. Before we even started, we noticed this guy in pink shirt lingering around our designated area, but since we thought he is with the other volunteer group with the sole purpose also of helping the Yolanda survivors, we just ignored him and continued packing & distributing relief goods. Little did we know that he was there not to help, but he was there for his own personal gain.

Thanks to technology, I was able to confirm my suspicions. Two days after the incident, I was able to retrive pictures of him thru my Dropbox app account that is synced to my stolen Samsung S4 phone. YESSS! THE THIEF IS UNKNOWINGLY SENDING ME HIS SELFIE PICS!!!

The police said this might be a scheme/ modus operandi, so please, to all of you, please be warned. Look at his pictures. Stare at it. (Creepy!!) Be vigilant. Take care of your things and beware of people like him. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. Pls help me share.

Yep. we are 500% sure!!! I was with other friends that  night. We all remembered him from that night lurking around our area. It will be too much of a coincidence that he was there too the moment I lost my phone… and he coincidentally bought the same phone in Greenhills… and the first picture uploaded by him is around the time I lost my phone..