An Orange County, Florida police deputy used Find My iPhone to find his iPhone, which was in his police cruiser that was stolen while the deputy was helping a man out of a burning home The cruiser was stolen by the same woman that stands accused of setting the fire.
Elores Cooper, 58, faces charges of arson and grand theft of a car.
Cooper had gone into the bathroom with a box of matches just before 5 a.m. Thursday, her husband later told deputies. Soon there was smoke pouring out of her home on Flycast Circle.
Deputy Marco Ruiz got to the home to find Cooper’s husband helping her and her mother out of the house, then going back in to try and put the fire out, records show.
Ruiz grabbed a fire extinguisher from his cruise and went inside to find the husband. Once everyone was safely out of the house, Ruiz noticed both his patrol car and Cooper were gone.
Deputy Ruiz immediately got on his radio and put out a description of the woman. Realizing that his iPhone was still in the car, he used the Find My iPhone app to track the cruiser to State Road 408, then to the 2800 block of E. South Street, records show.
Other deputies found the police car at the above location, but Cooper was nowhere to be found.
A man who lives nearby told deputies a woman had just knocked on his door and asked if she could come inside to call police. The man said he did not let her inside, but said he’d call 911 for her. There was a torch lighter on the man’s porch and a brown wig in the bushes in front of his house, neither of which belonged to him, he said.
A sheriff’s police dog tracked Cooper down on East Jackson Street, about 700 feet away from Ruiz’s patrol car. She is now being held on a $7,650 bond.