Skip to main content

He calls it "social justice:" A Toronto man, whose roommate is said to have had her phone stolen, has been uploading photos of a person he believes to be the thief. Some of the photos depict the young woman pouting seductively after bleaching her mustache.

The roommate said she had her phone pinched while at a nightclub. Since then, the phone has been used to take many pictures of what appears to be a teenage girl, "mostly glamour self-shots, smoking weed, and lots of pics of weed and paraphernalia," wrote "El_mochilero," the male roommate of the alleged victim.

The furry woman, according to the poster, doesn't realize the phone is beaming her mortifying self-portraits back to a Dropbox account that is actually shared by the roommate's colleagues at work. (No word on why someone would document their intimate hair removal process, but hell, she's likely a modern teenager.) The photos have also been viewed nearly 7,000 times on imgur.com, and are now gaining traction on Reddit as well.

"Any leads would be nice... if not, please have a good laugh!" wrote El_mochilero. He clarified later: "We're not even that concerned about getting the phone back. This social justice is too much fun." And then some more, when it was clear the pair were being criticized for posting the photos: "I'm trying to find a phone and to get this person to stop posting pictures to my account, not mob vigilante justice. The phone was stolen a while ago, but the photos keep coming to my dropbox account. This account is shared with other people, including some co-workers. Now it is full of pics of bongs, weed, and some girl's fat face."

Ouch. But while the voyeurism is gleefully satisfying, apparently the photo-posters have their limits: They've asked readers to "keep things civilized" and not to post information about the alleged thief publicly.

If it ever comes out that this young woman did do the deed, it wouldn't be the first time a hapless smartphone pilferer has mugged elaborately for the camera, not bothering to wipe the stolen device first. The results are always amusing.

Last year, after a Disney cruise passenger had her iPhone stolen, the device began beaming back photos of the thief and his crew via her Apple iCloud account. (In that case, the ransacker was a Disney staff member.) Pissed off, the woman uploaded his sunset-party pics to a Facebook photo gallery titled "Stolen iPhone Adventures," which quickly went viral.

And in August, a man rallied his friends together after spotting his stolen bike (worth $2,500) on Craigslist. The group drove 257 kilometres from Portland to Seattle to confront the thief – while taping it all, of course.

So, thieves, get to know Craigslist, Dropbox and Apple iCloud a little better before your exploits are plastered all over the Internet.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this blog suggested the woman in the photographs stole the phone, which is not clear. This version has been edited to reflect that.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe