Some high-tech police work straight out of a primetime cop drama helped bring down a thief who stole a Muni rider's iPhone over six months ago. According to SFPD's Bayview Station newsletter today, the suspect in a January 4th robbery was identified when local cops turned up a match in the FBI's criminal DNA database.
The crucial piece of DNA evidence came from a beanie that apparently fell off the iPhone thief's head while he and an accomplice ran off the Muni bus after swiping the phone from an unsuspecting rider near DeHaro and Southern Heights. Officers responding to the scene collected the beanie as evidence and ran a DNA sample against the national database. The identified suspect also matched the description from Muni surveillance footage.
As it turns out, the thief had a reputation for petty crime and was already in custody with SFPD for another robbery in the city when cops discovered the DNA match. Prior to that to the most recent arrest he had two other robbery convictions. Additional robbery charges for the January 4th iPhone incident are still pending.
