A man was reportedly arrested this week in connection with a recent bank robbery after his credit card that was used to rent a Jump e-scooter linked him to the scene of the crime.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that the incident occurred in Austin on Dec. 18, when a hooded man approached a bank teller at a BBVA Compass bank and slipped her a note demanding money. He made away with the cash, but not before being spotted with a scooter, per the Statesman:
Police reviewed video footage that showed a man, whose clothing matched witnesses’ descriptions of the suspect, riding a Jump scooter on the footpath away from the bank. Detectives sent Uber, which owns Jump, a subpoena requesting the account information for the Jump scooter, which had been used at Sixth and Guadalupe streets.
In cooperating with the authorities, Uber reportedly handed over the phone number, credit card information, and email of 19-year-old Luca Mangiarano. According to the Statesman, surveillance footage obtained from of Mangiarano’s residence appeared to fit the profile of the individual caught in footage from the bank robbery, and mobile phone location data surfaced his device in the area at the time of the incident. Mangiarano was reportedly charged with robbery by threat.
“We appreciate the Austin Police Department’s work in this case that led to an arrest of this individual,” an Uber spokesperson told Gizmodo in a statement by email. “We fully cooperated with law enforcement and will continue to provide any information to them that may be helpful on their investigation.”
As e-scooters continue to take over cities across the nation, so too do stories of their use in criminal activity. A burglar in Indianapolis was said to have escaped on a Bird scooter after robbing a man in his home in September, and yet another Bird scooter was reportedly used in a phone robbery incident in Baltimore in December.
As if folks needed more reason to hate these things.