Teen used 'find my iPhone' app to find lost phone-and thief

DALLAS, Texas (WHDH) -- A teenager flying from Dallas to Boston - left his phone at the airport.

When he touched down - he helped police track it down... And find an accused thief in the process.

In the hurried anxiety of modern air travel, it was a simple mistake.

"That’s exactly what happened. It was a last-minute discovery that he had lost it."

An iPhone - Todd Wallace's teenaged son, Buckley, was charging his in Terminal A at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and mistakenly left it plugged in when their Boston-bound flight started to board. Once in Massachusetts, though, he tracked the device using "find my iPhone" and saw it was still in Terminal A. But a little later, the teenager noticed it moving, actually leaving the south entrance at DFW.

"We actually sent a message to the phone and indicated that if it was missing and that they should return it, and right after that, the phone was turned off."

But not before tracing the phone to an Irving apartment just southeast of DFW. When police knocked on the door, the person inside the apartment acted like they didn't know what detectives were talking about. Turns out, though, investigators found six iPhones inside that janitor's apartment, including the one that was traced here. Listen to the excuse he gave detectives about where he got them.

"He initially stated his brother had given them to him, because he worked for a phone company, so we called his brother and his brother said he's never given him any phones nor does he work for a phone company."

Legal experts said it's doubtful that airport janitor will go to jail, because so far, none of victims have filed charges against him.