UCF students helped crack the case for one student’s missing phone on Wednesday.
The popular Facebook group for students, UCF Craigslist, was taken over by Winter King, a junior majoring in Marketing, after she posted photos of a man she thought may have stolen her phone and started using it as his own.
The post reads: “Does anyone know this guy/any of these guys? I think he stole my phone and has been taking pictures on it which has been showing up on my iCloud account.”
“I noticed a bunch of pictures of this guy and his friends, and I thought ‘Wait, I don’t know him. Why are his pictures under my folder?’ So then I realized someone must have picked up my phone and kept it for themselves,” King said.
Almost immediately after she posted to the group, King had the man’s full name, Facebook page and phone number. The post now has over 500 likes and comments and is still gaining attention.
“It was more effective than I imagined it would be,” King said. “The post blew up immediately.”
She found out the man who had been taking photos with her lost iPhone was Mark St. Fort.
King contacted St. Fort immediately.
“He had said, yes, he would return it, but only whenever he came to Orlando to visit next. I think he lives a couple hours from Orlando,” King said. “But he never mentioned when he would be back.”
Left with the uncertainty of St. Fort’s next trip to Orlando, King suggested he mail her the lost iPhone.
“He [St. Fort] said that he wasn’t going out of his way to pay extra money to mail my phone back to me. When the conversation turned into an argument I, then, decided to call the Orange County cops who told me to first file a stolen phone report,” King said.
After the post started to accumulate more attention, students started trolling the post and took it upon themselves to help King get back her phone.
“I saw the post and thought it would be an opportunity to bring justice to someone who puts their needs above others,” said Felipe Pardo, a senior making in Biology. “After the guy [St. Fort] was busted, he tried to cover up and instead of admitting to his errors, he started threatening people and bullying doesn’t go well with me. So I decided to make fun of him and the situation. Also, have a good laugh.”
St. Fort said he hadn’t seen any of the posts and didn’t want to comment on the situation.
Some students used St. Mark’s information to contact him directly in hopes of helping King get her phone back, but soon the messages to St. Fort became negative.
“I realized that a lot of people were just trying to make him angry by sending him mean messages on Facebook, so I decided to step in. I wanted to find out why this guy had her phone by trying not to be too hostile about it,” said Ryan Winkler, a junior majoring in Information Technology.
“I was actually able to get him to tell me how he obtained the phone, which was a question we all asked, and I think the victim was glad I was able to get that information for her,” said Winkler.
After turning the case over to the police, King was able to get back her phone within hours.
“I received a call from that police station that night saying that they had my phone and how to go pick it up,” King said. “It was surprisingly a really easy process.”
The post, which is filled with countless memes, Game of Thrones references and some quick detective work, entertained many readers, including King.
“I kept getting all these notifications about the post after that so I just read along for the entertainment,” King said. “The meme’s kept getting funnier and people’s reactions were hysterical.”
Thanks to some “selfies” and the detective work of UCF students, King has back her phone.
“It was like I had an army, and I was surprised everyone was so eager to help out, but I do think it got a little out of hand,” King said. “I do appreciate everyone’s input though, and I’m especially happy now because I get my phone back and don’t have to pay for this $500 new phone now.”
