A US teenager has been arrested after choosing perhaps the worst possible getaway vehicle for a bank robbery - an electric scooter.
Nineteen-year-old Luca Mangiarano held up a BBVA Compass bank in Austin, Texas, in December then fled with the cash.
- Watch: Young man tackles Dunedin's Baldwin St on Lime scooter
- Lime scooters in Switzerland are braking suddenly by themselves
- Revealed: The substantial number of lime scooter ACC injury claims in NZ already
But a bank employee spotted Mangiarano using an electric scooter to make his escape. Surveillance video revealed this to be a Jump scooter, which is owned by Uber.
Police sent a search warrant to Uber, which sent them the account information for the ride. This included his phone number, email address and credit card information, along with the geolocation data for the scooter.
"We knew that the scooter used GPS because if the company needs to retrieve them, they need to know where the scooters are," Detective Jason Chiappardi says.
"I sent a search warrant to Uber, and they were able to give us any of the account information for each ride. As an Uber user myself, I know what info I have to provide to use an Uber, and I was hoping it would be the same case with an electric scooter - and it was."
Mangiarano has been arrested and charged with robbery by threat,
"This was a learning experience for me and the robbery unit," Det Chiappardi says.
"We had never had a scooter involved in a robbery."
Newshub.