Picture of suspected phone thief Brian Chattoo snapped by the robbery victim’s “iGotYa” iPhone app. (NYPD/WCBS)
CBS Station WCBS reports Brian Chattoo, 23, was captured Friday at his home in Richmond Hill.
Police said he snatched a woman’s iPhone from her pocket on Monday on Liberty Avenue.
When he tried to unlock the phone, the iGotYa app took his picture – and emailed it to the victim.
Chattoo is charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
Before the theft earlier this week the phone’s owner, a 31-year-old woman, downloaded a mobile phone application that will snap a picture of whomever tries to unlock the phone using an incorrect password, and then e-mail that photo and the phone’s location to her.
Police say the app, iGotYa (available online but not for sale via iTunes) worked.
When the victim received the photo of a young man with short hair and an earring unknowingly staring into the camera, she passed it along to law enforcement officials.
A police spokesman told The New York Times that plain clothes officers recognized the young man in the picture, identified as Brian Chattoo.
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