WOMAN NEARLY ARRESTED WHILE TRYING TO RETURN LOST CELLPHONE (1771 hits)
WOODLAWN, Md. —A Woodlawn woman said her experience with trying to return a lost cellphone was anything but pleasant, despite her attempt at trying to do a good deed.
"Once we left McDonald's, we were driving past this parking space. We found this phone on the ground," Clarke told 11 News I-Team reporter Barry Simms.
She said she picked it up, but because the phone was locked, she could not immediately contact the owner, and she had left her own phone at home. She decided to finish her errands and call when she got home, but that's when something happened.
"We heard this beeping sound, and we thought it was coming from our car because we had just bought another car, and we realized it was the phone. On the screen it said, 'I've lost my phone. Please call this number,'" Clarke said.
She said when she got home about a half-hour later, she called the owner and explained how she found his cellphone.
"I said, 'I can meet you somewhere. I am home now, and I can meet you to return the phone.' And he said the police should be arriving at your door in a few minutes because I reported the phone as stolen," Clarke said.
She said at that very moment, at least six police cars showed up outside of her home. Two officers came to the door.
"The police said, 'Give me the phone.' I handed him the phone," Clarke said. "It was just the way they arrived at my door. The police were stern and cold. They had attitude, treating me like a criminal."
Shortly after Clarke said she found the cellphone, the owners used a tracking service to follow it and Clarke's every move, Simms reported. They also called 911 and reported the phone stolen.
"Our officers responded to a report of a crime in progress. We didn't know if it was a robbery or theft, but we sent multiple units out to investigate," said Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost.
Baltimore County police did not arrest Clarke, but officials said they could have.
"The victims in this case could have pressed charges. They chose not to. They were from out of state and wanted to go on their way," Armacost said.
Clarke said the owner actually thanked her for contacting him about the phone, but the experience was discouraging.
"I thought it was horrible because I felt I was trying to be a Good Samaritan and return the phone to its rightful owner," Clarke said. She called the police response overkill.
"We have no way of knowing whether these people were Good Samaritans or not," Armacost said.
She said Clarke made the mistake of picking up the phone and driving around for a half-hour.
"The moral of this story is that if you find something that doesn't belong to you, you just can't pick it up and walk around for any length of time. What you need to do is call police and report it," Armacost said.
Clarke said she will never pick up a stray phone again.
"No. I told everyone, including my sons, that if you find a phone, just leave it there," she said.
The I-Team tried to contact the owner of the cellphone. The call was not returned.
And we wonder why people have become basically selfish and don't bother doing anything nice for others no more. Its not like she was going to keep it. Thus the reason she called them in the first place to let them know she had found their phone. They had the ability to nip all this in the bud. If a person was going to steal the phone they wouldnt have even bothered to call the number provided.
Next time I find something and it isnt mine I will walk either over it or past it. Not my business...
Friday, November 22nd 2013 at 1:44PM
Siebra Muhammad
