A bold Florida burglar reportedly tipped cops off to his hiding spot by playing with a VR headset not long after a successful heist.
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Indeed, a family was getting cozy in their new home in Ocoee, Florida, just outside Orlando, when a burglar broke in through a sliding glass door late last month. The burglar swiped just one item: a VR headset owned by one of the family's children, according to Orlando's Fox 35.
However, despite the burglar's preference for snatching a fancy piece of tech, their ignorance of how it's used soon tipped off the police to his location...
After being powered on, the stolen VR headset was revealed to still be paired with one of the family's smartphones. The hapless burglar then proceeded to give the family and authorities a very handy guided tour of his location.
Through the headset, the burglar casually gazed at an identifiable vehicle and a home with a virtually one-of-a-kind emerald rooftop.
Per Fox 35, Ocoee Police Sergeant Kevin Birdsong spent his formative years near the location and remembered the green roof vividly. About an hour later, cops arrived at the Florida home and recovered the VR headset.
Florida Burglar Arrested After Stolen VR Headset Reveals His Location... on a Warrant Involving Another Stolen Device
During the Sept. 27 investigation, police identified and arrested 18-year-old Ja'Mir Edmond Baker related to an outstanding Orange County warrant. According to court documents obtained by Wealth of Geeks, the teen's warrant was for allegedly stealing an Apple iPad from a parked vehicle months before his reported VR Headset gaffe.
The family revealed that they often used their smartphone to check out what their child was up to while they played with the VR headset. Luckily, the connection remained after the burglar swiped it, allowing cops to take a gander at what the headset saw via a livestream.
Since the VR headset didn't offer up a GPS location, Sergeant Birdsong being familiar with the area was key. This helped cops zero in on a specific (green-roofed) house and expand their search from there.
Meanwhile, experts have a bit of advice to avoid incidents like the one that befell this Florida family. They advised enabling any features that may help locate a stolen tech item, such as tracking features, cloud connectivity, and remote monitoring. When reporting a stolen tech item to the police, it's also vital to share any digital tracking data with them to speed up the investigation.
However, they also had some pretty straightforward advice that doesn't involve access to the cloud...
They urged folks to lock their sliding doors.
