Rocky the raccoon's iPhone4 theft at golf course is foiled

A raccoon with a taste for golfers' lunches also took a man's cell phone which was found high in a tree with the help of a phone finder app and a tall ladder.

A masked thief named Rocky the raccoon, notorious for brazenly stealing from unsuspecting Palm Beach County golfers, couldn't outwit GPS in his most recent caper.

Drawn to golf carts like Yogi Bear to picnic baskets, Rocky during the past year has made off with food, a wallet and other goodies snatched from unsuspecting players at the county's Okeeheelee Golf Course on Forest Hill Boulevard west of West Palm Beach.

So when a golfer on New Year's Day returned to the course after losing his cellphone the day before, employees had a feeling that the sneaky repeat offender that they named Rocky had struck again.

A GPS app allowed the golfer, Brian Acker, of Sebring, and course employees to track the missing iPhone4 to the second hole of the Eagle Course at Okeeheelee.

By "pinging" the phone, they heard its locator tone coming from the top of a nearby palm tree. Workers used a ladder and first found the cellphone case, discarded about 12 feet up the tree.

After climbing a little higher, they found the iPhone in Rocky's treetop hideout along with the multiple food wrappers.

"He has a taste for open food items left in golf carts and shiny items," said Okeeheelee General Manager Mac Hood, who helped find the phone. "The raccoon just saw something he liked and he went in there and grabbed it."

The phone was returned to its grateful owner, but Rocky remains on the loose.

The phone still works, suffered no major scratches and as far as Acker can tell, Rocky didn't make any calls.

"I'll be back," Acker said about his plans to play golf at Okeeheelee again. "This time I will leave my cellphone in the car."

Unlike Bill Murray's gopher-tormented character in the movie classic "Caddyshack," Hood doesn't seem too concerned about sharing the golf course with Rocky.

"It created a little excitement," Hood said. "We just have to live out here with our furry friends."

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter @abreidnews

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-raccoon-phone-thief-20130109,0,4595453.story?track=rss

scarlett johansson 49ers survivor tim tebow homeland homeland snl