What to know
- The phone was allegedly stolen from a backpack at Vaughan Mills mall.
- Emily Quach used phone tracking to locate the device at a private home.
- Police accompanied Quach to the address, where a confrontation took place.
- York Regional Police warn against tracking stolen devices on their own and urge filing a proper theft report.
A GTA woman tracked her little sister’s phone to a stranger’s house after it was stolen at Vaughan Mills, and brought police along to get it back.
On Thursday, Toronto local Emily Quach took the story to TikTok.
@emliftss PSA for my Vaughan people or anyone who just needs a reminder to be aware because people will do the most these days+ a li vlog bc why not make a bad day better To the people who stole the phone, Karma WILL get you…
♬ Oh No (Instrumental) – Kreepa
In the video, she explained that the previous day, she had expected to attend a FIFA watch party with her friends to cheer up after a bad day at work.
Instead, she learnt that her sister’s phone had allegedly been stolen from her backpack.
What happened?
Quach saw that the alleged thief had forgotten to turn off the phone’s location and decided to take matters into her own hands.
“If you know me, you know I’m not scared to get down to business. So I was on my way to the house by myself, and then all my friends told me to be smart, so I called the non-emergency line for assistance,” she wrote on her TikTok video.
After getting off the phone with the dispatcher, she waited for the cop to meet her at the house to confront the alleged thief.
@emliftss Needless to say, today was a DAY.
♬ Oh hell no – Slix
The confrontation
When they knocked on the door, both a man and a woman answered.
Quach explained in the video that the husband was allegedly part of it but still cooperative, while the wife allegedly started yelling at her and tried to withhold the phone.
The wife allegedly said, “They waited a long time at the mall to see if anyone would call for the phone,” but Quach called her out, saying that she could’ve given it to mall security instead of taking it home.
In the video, Quach wrote, “She started stuttering and raising her voice more, which is where I knew they were reacting bc they realized they messed up by not turning off the location.”
Police warn against tracking stolen devices yourself
“It is possible this incident was a keep-the-peace call to help ensure the complainant’s safety if they attended the house without filing a theft report,” York Police told Now Toronto. “If a theft occurs, the incident must be properly investigated before officers have the authority to actively retrieve any items or lay criminal charges.”
Police strongly discourages complainants from attending any addresses their devices may have been mapped to alone, and to prioritize personal safety.
PSA
Quach wrote a Public Service Announcement (PSA), saying it can happen “anywhere, anytime,” and to be careful.
“I was lucky that I was able to track [the] phone down and only had to go through some verbal arguing,” she wrote on her video.
