A phone thief that stole $15,000 worth of cryptocurrency has been caught after he mistakenly sent an apology email to a detective investigating the case, NJ.com reports.
New Jersey man Darren Carter (29) is said to have swiped a Connecticut resident’s phone at a Californian airport in April. He then used it to siphon funds from the victim’s Coinbase account.
Investigators were able to trace the pilfered cryptocurrency back to Carter as it had been moved to a PayPal account within hours of the phone being taken, albeit after it was converted to US dollars via Coinbase.
PayPal eventually recovered the $15,472.31 and returned it to the victim, some four months after it was stolen.
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Ironically, Carter was already in jail on unrelated charges when authorities arrived in South Jersey to arrest him for identity theft.
He’s reportedly been extradited to Connecticut and later transported to California, where he’s been held — unable to post $150,000 bail.
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