ESTERO, Fla. —
A Fort Myers teen’s phone was stolen while she was shopping at the Nike store at Miromar Outlets, but it was returned two days later after a social media post helped identify the suspect.
Summer O’Connor, a Fort Myers resident, described the moments leading up to the theft, which occurred while she was shopping with her son and his girlfriend, Hailey.
“She set the shoes that my son had picked out that she was carrying down, along with her phone right next to it, on top of the rack that we were standing at. And I tried on the other hoodie, and she was helping me look through things through the rack, and we looked up when we were ready to walk away, and the shoes were still there, and the phone was gone,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said they noticed a man nearby shortly before realizing the phone was missing.
“We had thought it was really strange because we were in the women’s section and there was no men’s clothing items or anything like that over there. So we noticed him in our vicinity, but we were trying not to jump to conclusions or anything like that,” she said.
After asking a Nike employee to review surveillance footage, O’Connor was advised to contact the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. She filed a report and then turned to social media for help, posting the suspect’s photo in various community groups.
“I posted in every single community group that I was in on Facebook, from Lehigh to Fort Myers, Naples, and within a matter of hours, I had several messages in my inbox saying, hey, I know exactly who this is,” O’Connor said.
Two days later, O’Connor said the store manager confirmed with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office that the suspect had returned the phone.
Hailey expressed relief at getting her phone back, which contained irreplaceable photos.
“I was relieved because it’s my phone and you have to, like, worry about anything anymore because, you know, I had to go to work without it. It was like, it’s like the worst thing not having a phone,” Hailey said.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has not yet provided additional information about the incident.
O’Connor said she does not plan to press charges against the individual but hopes to raise awareness about how easily thefts can occur.
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