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SALT LAKE CITY — An iPhone proved to be extremely valuable to a North Salt Lake man whose truck was stolen last weekend.
A thief swiped the truck Saturday while the owner went inside a North Salt Lake business.
"When we went back outside, the truck was gone," said the theft victim, who did not want to be identified.
Monday, Salt Lake City police found his truck without the wheels.
"All the personal stuff inside was gone," he said.
That included his iPhone.
His son-in-law could not track the phone right away because it was too old, but he discovered how to do it online.
"Once I made the Apple ID, I could sign, click on Find My Phone,” the son-in-law said.
Then, the citizen detectives activated a beeping sound.
"(The thief) had the phone turned off. I think in trying to turn off that beeping, in the process turned the phone on. Once he turned the phone on, we were able to see him on here," the son-in-law explained.
They zeroed in on the phone at a storage facility in Salt Lake and called police. With the accused thief in front of them, they activated the tone.
"You could hear that exact sound just blaring in the guy's pocket, and the cop pulled the phone out," the son-in-law said.
Police arrested Jeff Reiser, who already had a $25,000 warrant out for his arrest. He was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Monday.
"I was so excited you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face when that sound started playing in his pocket," the son-in-law said.
The truck owner is still missing a trailer that was stolen with the truck. Detectives will try to determine whether Reiser has other stolen property in the storage units.
