Woman tracks down Mercedes driver after 10 hours for taking her phone, he says it was found on road

The New Paper
July 14, 2023

She tracked him down around Singapore for 10 hours and finally found him - the man who allegedly stole her phone.

“(The police officer who received her report) said he has never seen anyone track their phone with so much diligence before,” Ms Yvonne Ling wrote in the comments of her video.

Her TikTok video, which shows her friend confronting a driver of a Mercedes after he allegedly took Ms Ling’s iPhone at around noon on Wednesday (July 12), has clocked over 121,000 views and over 2,400 likes so far.

@vonsterbelle [CASE CRACKED] When wedding photographers turned into PI. I dropped my iPhone 14 Pro Max and my IC, within 1 minute, this guy from S400 Mercedes came out of his car to steal it. Tracked him down around Singapore for 10 hours and finally found him!!! He didn't even apologise to me. The phone is a gift from my dad for my birthday. #Singapore #crime #Singaporecrime #police #FBI ♬ original sound - Yvonne Isabelle Ling

Ms Ling said that she had dropped her iPhone Pro Max, which also held her identity card in the casing, when she got out of her taxi at Devonshire Road, near Orchard Road, on Wednesday.

A man driving a white Mercedes allegedly hopped out of the vehicle, took her phone and then drove off.

Ms Ling and her friends began tracing him using a tracking application.

They even followed the vehicle in their own car along Grange Road at around 11pm that night.

"We went out to follow his car and we got a lot of evidence," said Ms Ling. 

"With the Find My iPhone app, we saw him on the road, at Tanglin, in Somerset and at home.

"He even tried to sell my phone at Sim Lim."

Ms Ling filed a police report at 12.45am with all the proof they had gathered.

The police found the man and even got her phone back, IC included.

But the phone's glass casing was cracked on the front and back.

Ms Ling posted a clip of her confrontation with the alleged thief, who was not the owner of the Mercedes, according to her.

Her friend approaches the man in the video.

"Excuse me, are you the one who stole her phone? Are you the one who took her iPhone Pro Max?" she asks.

The man says "no" before walking away.

Ms Ling and her friends continue to question him.

He then turns around and raises his hand, motioning for them to stop before the video cuts away.

Ms Ling said that there will be a part two where she will reveal more about her confrontation.

@vonsterbelle Replacement fee: $1058.80 who pay for this cost? Police said my phone is found but apple told me that my phone is as good as trash. #fyp #singapore #singaporecrime #pi #fbi ♬ original sound - Yvonne Isabelle Ling

Responding to queries by AsiaOne, the police said that they were alerted to a case of dishonest misappropriation that occurred on July 12 at 133 Devonshire Road.

A 59-year-old man is assisting with ongoing investigations.