Mobile Phone in Kid's Pocket Calls Police as He Brags of Burglaries; Found With Hot Stereo in Hands

Machines turning on their human masters:

It sounds like the plot of science fiction movie, but it actually happened to a Peoria punk who police say likes to burglarize vehicles.

The 16-year-old was bragging to his homies about stealing from a car when his mobile phone spontaneously called the police. Perhaps his phone had a one-touch button to call 911, or the kid dialed the numbers by mistake while scratching himself. But little did the chatty guy know, cops began listening in on his conversation.

Click on the button below to hear the recording released by Peoria cops. At one point, it sounds like the kid is describing how tough it was to steal a stereo. 

"It was bolted down -- I had to rip it out," a voice can be heard saying on the recording released by Peoria cops. "It took all my energy to lift it out of the car."

His friends seem to be unimpressed with what may be a stolen Cricket phone, lamenting that it's not a Blackberry.

Despite long interludes of silence or muddied, unintelligible voices, the cops continued to eavesdrop. They used cell-phone-signal triangulation (with help from the phone company) to get a bead on the kid's approximate location and dispatched a squad car to the area of 9100 West Kings. There, cops found the kid with a stolen car stereo in his hands, says Mike Tellef, police spokesman.

The Peoria boy was released to the custody of his parents or guardian and written up for felony vehicle burglary, which will be prosecuted in juvenile court, Tellef says.

The dilemma for the parents in this case: Take the mobile phone away as punishment -- or force him to carry with him always, as a conscience-booster.