Crime & Safety

Crash and Grab? After Their Accident He Snatched Her Cell, Police Say

A Fridley man knocked away a woman's phone as she tried to call police about their two-vehicle crash at a Brooklyn Center Pizza Hut—and then he fled the scene with it, according to prosecutors.

A Fridley man has been charged with knocking a cell phone out of the hands of a woman and then stealing it after she tried to call the police to report an accident.

Derren Deshon Henderson, 22, is charged with theft from person, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Brooklyn Center police were called to the parking lot of a Pizza Hut restaurant just after 7 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2012, to investigate a two-vehicle accident, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Brooklyn Center Police Detective Corinne Becker.

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According to the complaint:

Officers met with the victim and two witnesses. The victim said she and a man, later identified as Henderson, got into a car accident in the Pizza Hut parking lot.

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She said both she and Henderson got out of their cars, and Henderson asked her repeatedly not to call the police. When she took out her cell phone and tried to call police, he knocked the phone out of her hand, snatched it from the ground, jumped into his car and fled the scene, the woman told police.

One of the witnesses said Henderson tried to wipe paint marks off the victim’s car as he was talking to her.

Both witnesses told police that they saw Henderson knock the phone out of the victim’s hand, then pick it up and leave with it in his possession.

Henderson later admitted to police that he was involved in the accident, but denied stealing the victim’s phone, according to the complaint.

Henderson has been released from custody on a $10,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Dec. 31 in Hennepin County District Court.


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