Councillor Richie McPhillips RMG10
THE LOCAL COUNCILLOR who had his mobile phone stolen on Lisnaskea Main Street in broad daylight has warned others to be wary of brazen thieves.
SDLP councillor and Assembly election candidate Richie McPhilips had his phone stolen last Monday afternoon, February 29 after it fell out on the main street. The following day he made an appeal through Facebook for its safe return.
Mr McPhilips stated that if the phone was returned intact no further action would be taken, but sadly the appeal yielded no results, despite numerous attempts to ring the phone.
The stolen phone, an iPhone, is believed to have been taken from the road beside the councillor’s vehicle on Main Street. It is thought the phone fell on to the ground when he left the vehicle at around 4pm. Citing the CCTV footage from the main street at around 4.33pm the footage shows a car pull up in a row of traffic and someone get out of the driver’s side and pick up an object from the ground.
It is thought that this may have been the phone, although this is unconfirmed and the matter is being investigated by the PSNI. In the same footage the SDLP representative returns to the car just a minute later.
In light of the events on Lisnaskea Main Street in broad daylight Mr McPhilips has urged local people to take care with their valuables, especially mobile phones and take the necessary precautions.
“It happens all the time and people aren’t careful enough. It’s a harsh lesson for me, that’s for sure.”
He continued: “I would urge people to be careful and put whatever security you can on the phone to prevent this. I unfortunately didn’t. ‘Find my iPhone’ seemingly is a great app. If I would have had that on my phone I would have been able to trace it much easier. It’s just one of those things though.
“The police officer said in most cases people more or less pass it back to the owner or attempt to get the owner, but in this case they didn’t bother.”
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