News and Success Stories

Tag Archives: Cell Phone

LeadsOnline and ecoATM help identify a jewelry shoplifter

“I was investigating an incident involved shoplifting numerous pieces of jewelry valued at over $200. The victim had security cameras and decent footage of the female suspect. The victim was able to obtain the license plate number of the vehicle the suspect left in, which belonged to a male. Through my investigation, I was able to find a female matching the description of the suspect. Initially, the only pictures I could find of the female were old, making it difficult to identify her as the suspect in the incident. Through LeadsOnline, I was able to find a recent pawn by the female in which she sold a cell phone at ecoATM. Because ecoATM takes pictures of the individuals, I now had an updated photograph which led to identifying the suspect. LeadsOnline has been an invaluable investigative tool, not only for finding stolen items but personal information on potential suspects, photographs, and current information. Thank you.”

Det. Calvin Beveridge
Chesapeake Police Department
Virginia

Retail thieves identified easily with help from LeadsOnline

“Here’s one that’s a bit unusual. I received an email from a loss prevention person at one of our department stores with surveillance photos of a couple who had been shoplifting game controllers from the store. She was asking if anyone could identify the two suspects. I used LeadsOnline to identify nine potential individuals. I narrowed the list to two based on relative age of the individuals in the surveillance photos. I found that they both had been selling, not only game controllers, but also cell phones to the ecoATM machines at our mall. Knowing that ecoATM takes photographs of people transacting business at their kiosks, I pulled up the ecoATM tickets with attached photos and had perfect pictures of both suspects with their identifying information, drivers licenses and thumbprints. One of the photos even showed both suspects together at the kiosk.”

Tom Haynie
Medford Police Department
Oregon

Store employee caught stealing and selling several cell phones in Ohio

“With the help of LeadsOnline, I was able to retrieve 14 cell phones from an ecoATM which had been stolen by an employee of a cell phone store. The phones were returned to the victim and charges filed on the suspect. Thank you LeadsOnline. ”

Det. Kimberly Haines
Jackson Township Police Department
Ohio

LeadsOnline helps police catch sexual assault suspect

“Detective Virginia Nichols, with the Denton Police Department Crimes Against Children Unit, was investigating a sexual assault of a child case. The suspect had initially contacted the victim via social media. The only identifying information the victim knew was a moniker and a cellular phone number. That phone number was searched through LeadsOnline and we were able to identify the suspect. That suspect was subsequently contacted, he provided a full confession, and was charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.”

Sgt. Michael Behrens
Denton Police Department
Texas

Oxford Police work with ecoATM and LeadsOnline to solve homicide in first 48

“A dead body was found inside a house because of a welfare concern. No suspect or evidence was found on the scene. We pinged his cellular device to a town 100 miles south of my jurisdiction near a Walmart. We could not find the phone. For two days the phone did not move. I logged onto LeadsOnline and put his ex-lover’s name into LeadsOnline search because the lover was from that town where the cell phone pinged. We also had a recent report of a disturbance between the two in my jurisdiction. Once I searched his name, it showed he sold the cell phone to the ecoATM inside Walmart. Plus, Walmart video showed he drove the automobile of the murder victim to Walmart. The vehicle was stolen after the murder. With this evidence, he confessed.”

Investigator Hardie Meeks
Oxford Police Department
Mississippi

LeadsOnline identifies kidnapping suspect with little information

“We had an aggravated robbery and kidnapping occur with a suspect armed with a handgun. We were able to identify 3 of the 4 suspects and were only provided initials for the unidentified suspect who was the one armed with a handgun. During interviews other suspects advised that the unidentified suspect sold a cell phone in a ecoATM prior to the robbery. A LeadsOnline search identified the armed suspect selling a phone prior to the robbery, thus identifying the suspect and providing video of all suspects together prior to the robbery. The ID led to a warrant being issued for the outstanding suspect for aggravated robbery and kidnapping.”

Sgt. David Adkins
New Lebanon Police Department
Ohio

Ohio masked man cleans out safe; Gets away, then doesn’t

We had a call of an aggravated robbery at cellphone store where two armed masked men tied up the clerk in the back of the store and cleaned out the safe. Both suspects got away however through investigation, I learned that the same suspects had robbed another cellphone store in Warren County. LeadsOnline came in helpful because I had placed an alert on one of the possible suspects and through further investigation found that one of the suspects was in at a business, hours before the Warren County robbery with the same clothing and shoes on. LeadsOnline is a great tool to law enforcement.”

Det. Robbert Johnson
Germantown Police Department
Ohio

LeadsOnline aids in identifying narcotics suspect

“LeadsOnline unexpectedly gave our agency a suspect’s photograph. An undercover narcotics officer came into the Tactical Information Office and asked the other officers to look up a DL photo of a suspect to write five felony drug delivery warrants. Unfortunately, the TIC officer was having software issues at that time. It always seems to happen at just the wrong time. I asked the undercover officer to let me give it a try in LeadsOnline with the hope that the suspect had sold a cellphone to ecoATM. So what you ask? ecoATM are the self-serve green kiosk in malls where customers can sell their used cellphones. ecoATM requires a valid driver’s license, and they also photograph the customer and the cellphone and attach the photographs to the LeadsOnline ticket. When I searched for the suspect I found an ecoATM ticket with a small camera icon. I clicked on the camera and there our suspect was with her smiling face. Since the ticket has the suspect’s driver’s license information and her image, the narcotics officer completed the warrants for her arrest.”

James Dunnam
Fort Worth Police Department
Texas

Suspect with stolen credit cards caught by LeadsOnline

“After a series of burglaries, the suspect used credit cards taken during the burglaries to purchase gift cards. The suspect was very careful not to give us a shot of his face on surveillance video when using the cards. Transactions from the gift cards showed that he was less careful using those, giving us a shot of his face. We were still unable to ID him. He also purchased a pizza, and he provided his phone number to the restaurant when he ordered it. The phone was a burner and all normal attempts to identify the owner didn’t work. I ran a search for the number through LeadsOnline and sure enough, he provided this number to a shop in another state. His picture was pulled, and it was a match to the suspect in the surveillance video.”

Det. Michael Costello
Republic Police Department
Missouri

Stolen cell phones and iPods recovered on eBay

“I was investigating a case where numerous cell phones and iPods were stolen from a local high school. One of the phones was reported as stolen by the person who purchased it on eBay because of a message on the screen when she received it. I received information from the buyer about the eBay seller and used LeadsOnline to determine who the seller was. I learned he sold seven more items that were also stolen from his school. LeadsOnline saved me numerous hours of work by having the information available at my fingertips.”

Det. John Mick
Lower Merion Police Department
Pennsylvania