Internal Alarm, Locator Lets Cops Find Stolen iPad

An employee tending shopping carts at Whole Foods supermarket last Monday tried to steal an iPad he found, but by activatingthe device's internal alarm, the loot was recovered, police say.

Darien Police Captain Frederick W. Komm, a spokesman for the department and commander of the investigative services bureau, gave this account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest:

A Norwalk resident shopping that evening at the supermarket left the iPad in the cart before leaving. The employee, Daniel Contreras, 33, later admitted to police that he had found the device, valued at $500, and put it under an orange traffic cone to hide it.

The owner, realizing it was gone when he returned home, went back to Whole Foods, looked around for it and spoke to managers at the store. The locator application was activated and showed the device was still in the parking lot.

A police officer then had the owner log in through the officer's iPhone to activate the alarm in the iPad, and it was found under the traffic cone, which was placed over it near the fence separating the supermarket parking lot from BMW of Darien, next door.

Contreras was the only employee taking care of shopping carts in the parking lot. Under questioning by police, he admitted taking the device. He said he hid the iPad to take it back later when his shift was over.

Contreras, of Columbus Avenue, Greenwich, was charged with fourth-degree larceny and released on a promise to appear this Friday in state Superior Court in Stamford.