Phone Purchase Leads OKC Police To Armed Carjacking Suspects

An armed robbery at a northwest Oklahoma City phone store left a victim shoeless and without his truck. 

However, police said on Tuesday the suspects left behind clues at the store that led officers straight to their home.

Officers located Ethan Redbird, 21, and Emily Moreno, 20, at an address the two used at a T-Mobile store to purchase a phone. 

Officers also used the “Find My Phone” app to locate the victim’s phone the two are accused of stealing.

A visit to pay a bill at the phone store near Northwest 23rd and Grand Boulevard took a terrifying turn on Sunday for a customer. 

Police said Redbird and Moreno first approached the 23-year-old victim inside the store and asked to borrow money. 

The suspects waited for the man outside in the parking lot by his truck.

“The female suspect got in the passenger seat,” Sgt. Dillon Quirk, with the Oklahoma City Police Department, said. “The male suspect showed the victim a firearm.”

The situation escalated when the victim refused to drive the suspects to a park. 

Redbird allegedly hit the victim in the face with the gun and forced him out of the truck. 

Before the suspects drove away, police said the duo demanded the victim's phone, wallet, and shoes. 

According to the police report, Redbird told the victim he had good taste in shoes and to take them off, all while pointing the gun at the man.

Employees at the store called police to report the armed robbery and the northwest Oklahoma City address the suspects gave them when they bought a phone.

“Police were ultimately able to track down those two at a residence,” Quirk said. “The victim’s car was there at the property.”

The suspects were inside the home near Northwest 16th and Independence Avenue, but police said they refused to come out for several hours.

“They were able to contact the female suspect by phone,” Quirk said. “And eventually talk them into coming outside where they were taken into custody.”

The suspects were booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on robbery complaints.