Update: Austin Police Department Recovers Cell Phones Stolen From ACL Fest

The Austin Police Department (APD) is pleased to announce that a large quantity of stolen cell phones recovered from persons attending WEEKEND ONE of the Austin City Limits Music Festival (October1-3, 2021) are ready to be reunited with their owners.

Of the 290 stolen cell phones APD recovered, 100 have been returned to their owners.

Due to their ongoing investigations APD's Organized Crime Division (OCD) worked with the US Postal Inspector who recently intercepted a package at a local Post Office and discovered a large number of cell phones. Along with this large recovery APD officers located stolen property from ACL fest at the Austin Bergstrom Airport and arrested three more individuals for a third degree felony of Engaging in Organized Crime:

• Jenny Gomez, Hispanic female, 30 years of age
• Lidi Mora Morena, Hispanic female, 35 years of age
• John Diaz-Albarracin, Hispanic male, 34 years of age

Gomez: Mora-Morena: Diaz-Albarracin:

APD would like to remind festival goers who attended WEEKEND ONE or WEEKEND TWO of ACL Fest to report a lost cell phone or any item at the following website https://www.aclfestival.com/lostfound and Utilize APD's online reporting site, https://www.austintexas.gov/department/ireportaustincom or 311 (non-emergency) to report a stolen cell phone. A report made to the ACL Fest website and non-emergency will assist with the reunification process.

The Austin Police Department would like to thank ACL fest, specifically C3 Presents and NPB Security for their efforts and assisting APD officers in locating the phones, which lead to arrests related to this case.

A member of the OCD unit will be available at 1:00 p.m. today for an interview. Please RSVP to PIO at [email protected] if you plan to attend.
Initial release October, 7, 2021:
The Austin Police Department (APD) is pleased to announce that a number of cell phones stolen from persons attending WEEKEND ONE of the Austin City Limits Music Festival (October 1-3, 2021) have been recovered.
Since the first weekend of ACL 2021, APD has received numerous reports of thefts at the festival. A majority of these reports are handled as "thefts from person" cases, commonly referred to as pick pocketing. In the majority of the cases, the items stolen are cell phones.
Phones are being quickly powered down or placed into airplane mode to prevent any tracking (such as Find my iPhone or Google). We strongly encourage people to record their device serial numbers and keep it somewhere else in case they need to reference it.
The Austin Police Department encourages festivalgoers to do the following:

• Pay attention to your surroundings, especially in crowds
• Keep your phone and ID/credit cards/cash in separate places on your person
• Phones sticking out of back pockets or backpacks are not secure
• Keep property in a secure location (front pocket, stylish fanny pack) or leave it at home
• Record serial number information for your device and keep it separate
• Notify on-site security/APD immediately for assistance
• Utilize APD's online reporting site, https://www.austintexas.gov/department/ireportaustincom or 311 (non-emergency to report a theft
• Check the ACL Fest lost and found site at https://www.aclfestival.com/lostfound to report or attempt to locate a lost cell phone
• If you see something, say something

APD's Organized Crime Division (OCD) continues to investigate these incidents and because of these investigations, OCD has made two arrests:

• Holman Valbuena-Malpica, Hispanic male, 35 years of age
• Johan Valbuena-Malpica, Hispanic male, 33 years of age

Holman Valbuena-Malpica Johan Valbuena-Malpica

Holman Valbuena-Malpica is charged with two third degree felonies for theft from a person and tampering with evidence. Johan Valbuena-Malpica is charged with a class A misdemeanor for unlawful use of a criminal instrument. APD collaborates with ACL Fest and with other law enforcement agencies to recover and reunite stolen items with their owners.

Persons who attended WEEKEND ONE of ACL Fest and lost a phone are encouraged to report the loss at the following website https://www.aclfestival.com/lostfound A report made to the ACL Fest website will assist with reunification. If your phone has been located an investigator will contact you and provide information on how to recover your phone. Anyone with information about these cases please call 3-1-1 or use the iReport to make a police report and reference case number 2021-5032087. The APD thanks the community for their patience as we investigate and process all of the recovered items.

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