Man steals 4-year-old's phone, taunts dad by text

  • 30/03/2017

A man who stole a young girl's phone in a busy shopping mall texted 'LMAO', slang for laughter, after her father sent a message to find out who might have found the missing phone.

Nelson Quiles had just left a Florida Walmart when his daughter told him her phone was missing.

That's when he figured out someone else had it.

While inside the store to buy his son a birthday cake his little girl, Angelina, went with her uncle to return a movie.

Putting her phone down briefly, Mr Quiles said within that quick second the thief snatched it.

He didn't care about the phone, he said, "it's just the fact that someone stole from a four-year-old."

Mr Quiles went back to look for the phone, and decided to send a text message to the number, which is when the culprit, Mykhal Henderson, responded.

"I was telling him he should return the phone because he stole it from a 4-year-old," Quiles said.

"He pretty much laughed in my face."

Mr Henderson texted back "LMAO," and allegedly told Mr Quiles that he found the phone on the floor and was going to keep it.

Police arrested the man during a later traffic stop, after viewing surveillance video which captured Mr Henderson walking out of the store.

Detectives identified him from that order, and he confessed to the crime.

Henderson’s criminal history shows six prior convictions for theft.

While police will return the phone to the girl, a question abuzz on social media asks, "Why does a four-year-old have a cell phone?"

Newshub.