Wilsonville Spokesman Online

Tracking device brings back stolen iPhone quickly

Victim used locator program to track her phone to a Tigard motel

• By: Michelle Te  
• Published: 3/10/2010 2:10:21 PM
• Last Updated: 3/10/2010 4:36:55 PM

Photo By: Josh KullaStolen phone returned
Stephanie Davies tried to be helpful Wednesday morning and in return had her iPhone stolen. Fortunately it was quickly tracked and recovered.

A crime of opportunity Wednesday turned out to less fortunate than the suspect had originally thought.

Ricky Tony George,19,  was arrested at a motel in Tigard about two hours after the iPhone he stole from a Charbonneau business was tracked through a global satellite positioning program.

George, a transient, was booked into Clackamas County Jail and charged with second-degree theft and giving false information to a police officer. The iPhone was returned to its owner, Stephanie Davies, who positively identified George at the time of arrest.

About 8:45 a.m., Davies was just opening Acumen Financial Services, a CPA firm she owns with her husband. She had set her phone up on the counter as she prepared for the day.

George, a dark-skinned man, whom Davies described as “clean cut,” walked in and showed her a business card for the Motel 6 in Lake Oswego.

“He asked for some directions, to get to the motel, and he also asked how to get to a hospital,” Davies said. “Then he asked me to draw out the directions, which I did. Then he left.”

But after he walked out and drove away in a dark green 2005 Chevrolet Silverado, with license plate DUR4881, Davies noticed that her phone was missing.

She called her husband who was working in the family’s Albany office and told him what happened. He reminded her that they had subscribed to AT&T’s Family Locater service as a way to keep track of their three children’s cell phones.

Immediately, Davies logged on and discovered that her phone indeed had been taken and now was in a room at the Motel 6 she had just given directions to. She was ready to leave the office and go after it herself, until her husband cautioned against it.

“He told me I should call the police and let them take care of it,” she said. “I felt embarrassed that I was calling about my missing phone. At first I called the Tigard police, but they told me to call the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. I called and said, ‘Hey this might sound funny, but a guy stole my cell phone and I know where it’s at.’”

About 20 minutes later, Davies received a call from a Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputy who was at the motel in Tigard. He asked her to meet him there. When she arrived, Davies and three deputies approached the room where George was staying.

“She had a description of the vehicle, she could positively identify the suspect and the staff told us what room he was staying in,” said the deputy, who asked not to be identified.

The deputies knocked on the door and George answered. They asked him to come out in the hallway, where Davies was waiting. She identified him as the one who had come into her office earlier that morning.

The responding deputy told the Spokesman that George denied stealing the phone, identified himself with a false name, then eventually said he had accidentally taken the phone.

He brought the phone out to the hallway, where Davies was able to identify it. By 11 a.m., she was back in her office. There was no damage to the phone, although George had made several calls locally and to the Seattle area.

“I was just glad he didn’t post anything on my Facebook page,” she said.

The whole incident had seemed rather strange, said Davies.

“He was asking for some conflicting information, and after he left, me and another gal in the office thought the whole thing was weird.”

The Wilsonville deputy said another similar incident happened in Wilsonville today as well. Wilsonville police are asking the public to report any suspicious activity regarding George. He is traveling with his parents and girlfriend.

They are described as “traveling Gypsies.” George has been arrested four times in Washington state, including for the crime of theft.

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