A hapless robber was caught out when he tried to escape in his employer’s GPS-equipped van, leading the police to quickly track him down.
The New York Post reports that Kevin Cheeks used a van owned by medical transportation company Sigma Transportation Inc, where he had been working for two months, as a getaway vehicle when he held up the Shinki Nail Salon in December 2009.
Queens Supreme Court in New York heard that Cheeks had held up four customers and three salon employees by pretending to have a gun before fleeing with their valuables and $300 from the cash register.
The dim-witted thief then realised he had left his mobile phone at the salon and went back to retrieve it, during which time a witness spotted his getaway van with the words ‘sigma ambulette number 16’ on the side.
Police investigating the case knew that ambulettes – vehicles used in New York to transport patients in non-emergencies – were usually equipped with GPS tracking devices.
GPS records showed that Cheeks’ van had been in the area of the salon at the time of the robbery, and when officers searched his house they discovered the same clothes he was pictured wearing in the salon’s CCTV.
Cheeks was found guilty on Tuesday after a two-week trial and will be sentenced next month.
Photo courtesy of rollingrck