A 40-year-old man has been charged with the theft of two unattended iPhones that he had allegedly stolen from a domestic traveler at a restroom in Ngurah Rai Airport.
The suspect, who is identified by his initials MA, went to the Ngurah Rai Airport police station yesterday to return the premium devices.
Police say MA swiped the iPhones from RPS, a Badung resident who arrived at the airport at around midnight on Thursday.
Upon arrival, RPS took a detour to the men’s room while carrying a bag and his two iPhones. He put the phones on the urinal stall while going about his business.
“[He] later forgot about his phones and went to the domestic arrivals area to order a taxi,” Ngurah Rai Airport Police Crime Investigation Unit Chief I Kadek Supendodi said.
RPS later realized that he had forgotten his phones and rushed back to the toilet, but the devices were no longer there.
Security officers tried to help locate the phones using CCTV footage, but struggled as the toilet saw heavy traffic at the time. Neither of the phones were active when RPS tried to call them.
RPS went home and filed an official police report the next afternoon. After reviewing CCTV footage once again, the Ngurah Rai Airport police found a lead into who took the phones: a man who lives in East Denpasar.
MA returned the phones yesterday, according to the Ngurah Rai Airport Police spokesperson Ni Luh Mandyani. However, she said, the iPhones had undergone some modifications.
“[One] already has a different [phone] case, while the gray iPhone 11 ProMax has been switched to factory settings and most of the data has gone,” Ni Luh said.
Despite returning the phones, MA was still charged with theft. Under Indonesian law, he could face a maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment if proven guilty.
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