Phone thief called victim's cab company

TORQUAY, England, June 23 (UPI) -- British police said a burglar who stole a cab driver's phone from his house made the mistake of using the pilfered phone to call the cabbie's company.

Police in Torquay, England, said the phone operator for the cab company recognized the incoming call as coming from the phone of a cabbie named Don Smith, whose house had been burgled the night before, and sent cops instead of a cab to pick the man up, The Sun reported Tuesday.

Jake Ormerod, 18, pleaded guilty to burglary as well as theft and shoplifting charges from unrelated incidents, the report said. Prosecutors said they are seeking a jail sentence of at least 18 months.

"He must be the unluckiest burglar in the world," Smith said of Ormerod. "He could have chosen any cab firm to ring, but he called mine. And if that wasn't bad enough, he happened to get the one controller on duty who would recognize my mobile number immediately."