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My fiance works in an elementary school. She is a teacher. On Friday — a student stole her cellphone, one of her credit cards, and all the cash from her purse. The student snuck into the classroom after a teaching assistant neglectfully didn’t re-lock the door when the students were at lunch. That evening..I was making supper and hadn’t heard from my fiance all day. I texted her and asked her if we had any wraps to make fajitas — and received a strange response from her cellphone: "do u wan na have kids still?" — She doesn’t write informally, even when she texts. I called her phone and received no response. Later, I received a phone call from her father indicating that her cellphone, credit card, and cash were all stolen from her classroom. When she got home she looked online and noticed several applications and kid ringtones had been charged to her cell phone account (50 dollars worth). I sent the kid a text to see if he would respond and sure enough – he did. I asked who he was and he sent me HIS PICTURE — calling himself "Lil Greg." Smart move, right? He didn’t know that I was the fiance of the person whose phone he had stolen. We now have a gigantic, color, 7.1 megapixel blow-up self taken FACE SHOT of this 5th grade boy from her school. He is even wearing his school uniform that indicates the building he goes to school in! We have printed this off – and I have it saved on my phone – along with the conversation that he texted me. There is no way whatsoever that this kid did not steal the phone. We also have records of the phone numbers that he dialed and programs that he downloaded onto her phone.
A police officer told her to print off the picture and give it to the principal and to call the police Monday morning so they can arrest the kid when he walks into the school. I am certain that he threw the phone away or that we will never see it again (300-400 dollar smart phone). But what now? Do we have to take the kids parents to small claims court to sue them for the difference?
Thanks.
1. The thief contacted me via my fiance’s stolen phone with a picture of himself; clearly a self shot picture from the angle of the picture–arms extended. It was a little boy wearing the school uniform of the school where she teaches. There’s no way to "fake" that he contacted ME because her phone records indicate that a picture of HIM was sent to me that evening.
2. The phone was a brand new Samsung smartphone, which has since been disconnected. It is likely untraceable because the battery will be dead and/or the kid will have thrown it away because the service was shut off. It is unfortunate because it was a gift from her parents. I am a graduate student and she is a teacher — and we could never afford it otherwise.
3. At a minimum I would expect that the thief will get into trouble for the credit card theft and possession of stolen property due to his connection to the phone. I would suspect it would be almost impossible for his family to afford a lawyer in the first place.















