Teen Uses Smartphone App To Let Friends Know He Was Kidnapped
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - A teenager escaped from a carjacking in Wheat Ridge with the help of a smartphone app.
Felipe Bustamante, 32, was arrested and is facing charges of robbery, vehicle theft and kidnapping for his alleged role in the incident that occurred last Thursday.
Wheat Ridge police say Bustamante was walking near 38th Avenue and Chase Street when he saw an opportunity. Investigators say he approached a 17-year-old boy at a car wash, showed him a gun he had tucked into his belt, and then forced the teen into the car before driving away.
"I think the goal was to steal the car. Why he made the person get in the car with him, that seems a little unusual," Cmdr. Mark Cooney with Wheat Ridge police said.
The teen, knowing he was in trouble, turned to an app on his phone called Snapchat.
"He was taking a picture and sending that out to his friends. His friends then called his father who recognized that he was in trouble and called the Wheat Ridge Police Department," Cooney said.
Cooney said as police were searching the area they got a second call informing them that the teenager had jumped out of the car miles away near 8th Avenue and Federal Boulevard.
In this case the teen did what he had to do to get home, but Cooney warns that every situation is different.
"You never know what type of risk you're going to take … you don't want to take an unnecessary risk," he said.
Bustamante remains in the Denver County Jail. Police say he was caught the day after the carjacking for committing another crime in Denver.