A South Florida poker player who was robbed can thank his phone’s GPS location services, and the less-than-brilliant acumen of the suspects who allegedly robbed him.
Scott Robbins, a 49-year old professional poker player, had just won $2,000 at a casino in Pompano Beach, Florida. Robbins, a native of Massachusetts, was probably feeling pretty high after scoring a nice win.
But that feeling quickly changed to fear after he got home. Robbins left the casino on his scooter and made a quick stop at a nearby Walmart before heading home. When he arrived, a couple that had followed him home greeted him with a threat, accompanied by a gun.
They wanted his money and belongings, and Robbins didn’t know what was about to happen.
“You can’t use the words I was feeling in the newspaper,” he told the Sun Sentinel, Miami’s leading newspaper. “I thought there was a good chance he was going to kill me.”
Luck on his Side
Robbins didn’t only get lucky in the poker room. He pulled off the equivalent of a two-outer on the river later in the day at the police station.
The alleged thugs, Karla Tattiana De Los Santos, 31, and her boyfriend Miguel Pena Allende, 34, both of South Florida, appear to have forgotten the GPS tracking capabilities of virtually any smart phone these days.
The couple robbed Robbins of nearly $10,000 in cash, but also took many of his belongings, including his wallet and Apple iPhone. They spared him his life, fortunately. But they quickly learned a lesson in modern technology.
At the police station, Robbins was able to track the location of his iPhone by logging into a deputy’s cell phone. This led police to the suspects and their eventual arrests.
During the robbery, Robbins asked the gunman to leave his phone. The gunman told Robbins he planned to toss the phone in the yard on the way out. But, sometimes luck is on your side.
“He didn’t leave the phone as he promised, but in retrospect it was a beautiful thing that he took the phone, because he would have taken everything I had and they never would have found him,” he said.
His iPhone location tracking services located the suspects about nine miles away in a Walgreen’s parking lot. The suspects were identified by Robbins and taken into custody.
A Checkered Past
This wasn’t the first time Allende has been in trouble with the law. He previously spent six and a half years in prison for armed robbery, where it appears he didn’t exactly hone his craft.
Prior to this arrest, Allende was only able to keep himself out of jail for a little over a year. Robbins got his money back, and Allende and De Los Santos are now in jail awaiting justice.
