Two men were charged today in San Francisco Superior Court with robbery for allegedly stealing a man’s laptop and cell phone but later getting arrested when the victim tracked them down using the phone’s global positioning system.
According to prosecutors, Maifala Tusi, 23, and Jerome Satele, 21, both of San Francisco, were arraigned this morning on charges of robbery and possessing stolen property.
The pair allegedly stole a man’s cell phone and laptop on Friday morning at Van Ness Avenue and Oak Street.
Prosecutors said Tusi, a 6-foot-1-inch-tall, 400-pound man, grabbed the victim’s laptop and ran down the street.
The victim, a 41-year-old man, chased Tusi and tackled him to the ground, but lost his phone from his pocket during the struggle, prosecutors said. Then Satele allegedly ran up and grabbed the phone off the ground.
Both suspects were able to make off with the man’s computer and phone, and fled in a light-colored Lexus, according to prosecutors.
A witness to the robbery allowed the victim to use his computer to access real-time GPS information revealing the location of the phone, and police later arrested Tusi and Satele inside the Lexus while they were driving through the Bayview District.
The victim got his phone back but unfortunately, his laptop is still missing, according to the district attorney’s office.
At the time of his arrest Friday, Tusi had been on “supervised pretrial release” for burglary and theft, for allegedly stealing another laptop from a gym facility at the City College of San Francisco in March, prosecutors said.
The release is a court program allowing defendants to be released from custody, with limited supervision, pending a trial on their case.
Both Tusi and Satele were ordered held today on $125,000 and $75,000 bail, respectively, according to the district attorney’s office.
