'Unluckiest burglars' call police by mistake

Posted on Friday, 8 January, 2021 | Comment icon

The burglars had no idea that the police were listening in. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Tobias ToMar Maier

A pair of would-be thieves ended up being arrested after accidentally phoning the police themselves.

The bizarre incident, which took place on Wednesday, saw the two men - aged 49 and 42 - being picked up by officers during a burglary attempt in the Middleport area of Stoke-on-Trent, England.

According to Staffordshire police, one of the men had accidentally dialled the emergency services after sitting on his phone, enabling authorities to hear and record everything that they were getting up to.

The recording even includes the moment officers arrived on the scene to arrest them.

"I think we have just arrested the world's unluckiest burglars," wrote Chief Inspector John Owen.

"Whilst committing a burglary one of the bungling burglars has accidentally sat on his phone and dialled 999. We receive a call detailing all of their antics up to the point of hearing our patrols arrive to arrest them."

The incident echoes another that occurred in Fresno, California in 2013 when two car thieves managed to call the police on themselves while trying to break into someone's vehicle.

If only all burglary cases were this easy to solve...

I think we have just arrested the world's unluckiest burglars:

Whilst committing a burglary one of the bungling burglars has accidentally sat on his phone & dialled 999. We recieve a call detailing all of their antics up to the point of hearing our patrols arrive to arrest them pic.twitter.com/0BZGSQdf0C
ā€” CI John Owen (@CIJohnOwen) January 6, 2021

Source: The Guardian | Comments (12)

Tags: Burglar, Police

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Recent comments on this story

#3 Posted by Desertrat56 on 7 January, 2021, 19:45

Ok. I just skimmed it and thought they were still talking about the burglars

#4 Posted by OverSword on 7 January, 2021, 20:28

Who owns a phone that can dial out unintentionally these days? Mine has facial recognition so I suppose if I sat on it.....My ass, my face, what's the difference?

#5 Posted by Desertrat56 on 7 January, 2021, 20:34

My iPhone does occassionally, but never to a number I haven't dialed. Those facial recognition phones are new and expensive,

#6 Posted by OverSword on 7 January, 2021, 20:50

Don't you have a passcode set on it?

#7 Posted by 'Walt' E. Kurtz on 7 January, 2021, 20:58

Thats why we have smart phones....

#8 Posted by Desertrat56 on 7 January, 2021, 21:00

Yes, but I have put my phone in my purse without closing it and it has called people, not the last person I called, seemed to be random. And the few times it happened I did not have the phone app open, it was on the main screen. Some kind of glitch. I don't know what kind of smart phone my brother has but once he set it on the charger and went to bed and it called me a few hours later. I thought he probably has a samsung since he said it does that a lot, random calling people he hasn't talked to in a while.

#9 Posted by acute on 8 January, 2021, 0:27

The Police in the UK don't respond to accidental or silent calls anymore.

#10 Posted by Desertrat56 on 8 January, 2021, 15:54

Apparently that call wasn't silent. LOL

#11 Posted by Glacknor on 9 January, 2021, 12:06

As I recall, it's mandatory that a phone can call emergency services while locked and even without a plan. In fact, I just looked at my Note 10+ and there's an "emergency" button right there on the lock screen that'll bypass the security settings for the call. So, this guy must've not turned his screen off. Or, since he's a thief, may be using an older phone that's less trackable... until you call emergency and it turns on the GPS.

#12 Posted by mesuma on 11 January, 2021, 23:29

There's a trail here. They're burglars cause they don't have jobs and they don't have jobs cause they are quite obviously f'in morons. Clouseau-esque morons.

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