Police Searching For Man Who Robbed Educator Of $800 iPhone At Gas Station

ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Police Department is seeking the community’s assistance in locating a man who is said to have stolen an $800 iPhone from a teacher at the Quick Serve Service Station in Grove Place on Friday.

The man was caught on camera and his image was provided to the V.I.P.D.

The man, a Hispanic male, is seen wearing a black shirt and long chain around his neck. He has black facial beard and mustache. He also appears to be of a slim build, according to the image provided.

The incident occurred at about 10:50 a.m., according to the victim. She had visited the service station to get gas and a snack before heading back to her classroom. After stepping into the service station’s convenience store to tell the employee how much gas she wanted to purchase, she went back to her vehicle to get her credit card, and left her phone on the counter. When she returned, she said the suspect had the phone in his possession and was arguing with the gas station employee, who was encouraging the suspect to give the phone back to the owner.

The victim said because the store employee was doing his best to avoid an altercation with the suspect, he instead focused the store camera on the suspect to get a clear image of him to use as evidence. “When I came back in he explained to me that he tried to tell the guy that it was my cellphone,” the victim told The Consortium. “I am a female, a single parent, I have no husband or anybody to defend me, so my best option was to get the store employee to email me the pictures and try to go to the V.I.P.D.”

The suspect took the cellphone and went into a green taxi bus and left the area, according to the police report. The victim saw the taxi bus’s license plate number and provided it to the V.I.P.D.

“I just had a death in my family; I can’t be going through these things,” the victim lamented. “Just this morning I got a phone call about a death in my family, now my phone gets robbed in my face.”

The V.I.P.D. is asking anyone who knows the whereabouts of the suspect to contact police at 340-778-2211, or Crime Stoppers USVI here.