An Edinburgh Kirk minister turned detective before putting the 'fear of God' into a thief who nicked his mobile phone.
Reverend Bill Wishart, who is the minister of St Martin’s Parish Church, locked his Samsung Galaxy Note 9 remotely and posted a message to its screen which said that it belonged to a minister and was essential for his work.
He used the device's “Find My Phone” app to track the location of the phone to a house in Johnstone in Renfrewshire and informed Police Scotland.
He then posted a second message with his daughter’s phone number and urged the thief to safely return it to him because it would soon be wiped and rendered unsellable.
The handset which the-54-year-old accidentally left in a shopping trolley outside the B&M store in Linwood on Saturday was then found by a man in a trolley at Asda around a mile away the following day.
The grandfather, who is an amateur magician known as the Minister of Magic, joked: “It is such great news to get my phone back and for it to disappear from a trolley in one place and reappear in another trolley a mile away is my best trick yet.
“I reckon they got panicky and realised that the phone was too hot to keep and it wasn’t just the police looking for them because they had God on their case too.
“I am very thankful to the lovely guy in Paisley who found the phone and arranged for it to be returned to me.
“There is not a scratch on it and he very reluctantly accepted £20 for his trouble.”
Mr Wishart was assisted by his Linwood-based son Alistair and his daughter Rachel and her partner Scott from Holytown in the hunt for his lost phone which he says he has used more than ever for online worship activities during the coronavirus pandemic.
