Man Tracks Down Stolen iPhone, Beats Up Guy Who Has It [VIDEO]

An investigation into a theft, a citizen’s arrest and a beach brawl. Sound’s like an episode of some law enforcement reality show, right? Maybe CSI meets Jersey Shore? Actually the events are all elements of a viral video that started over a missing iPhone.

When Kenneth Schmidgall lost his phone Dec. 30, his friend Greg Torkelson offered to trace it with the “Find My iPhone” app. They two used the app to track the phone’s signal for two hours until they traced it to a man riding a bicycle.

“I saw the gentleman on the bike and we followed it and kept tracking it and every time it would stop, the guy on the bike would stop,” Schmidgall told Sa Diego’s News10.

When they confronted the man on the bicycle, he hit Schmidgall in the face. The two fought until Torkelson pepper-sprayed the thief and attempted to make a citizen’s arrest before another man who identified himself as an off-duty police officer stepped in. The entire incident was caught on video.

“I do think I taught him his lesson,” said Schmidgall. “I really don’t think people should be going out and getting in fights with people because of their cellphones but there comes a point when you have to stand up for yourself and say, ‘This is my stuff, and I’m not going to let people get away with taking it.‘”