Man charged with theft after mobile phone app takes his photo

A 55-year-old Canberra man has been caught red-handed after his photo was taken by a mobile phone he had stolen.

The owner of the phone discovered it had been taken, among other items, from his parked car over the weekend.
The mobile phone contains an application that discreetly takes a photograph when a user puts in the wrong access password on the phone three times in a row.
The photograph was automatically sent to the owner's email account who then reported the incident to police.
Investigations by police led them to the man in his Chifley home and he was charged with property damage and minor theft.
He was later bailed to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court in September.
Last year a Canberra court ruled that it was perfectly legal to use similar applications to track down stolen phones and computers.