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WEST VALLEY CITY -- Police haven't arrested the thief just yet, but they know his name and information -- all because he looked himself up on Salt Lake County Jail's database.

The West Valley EZ Rent-to-Own at 2974 W. 3500 South usually gets honest customers looking to own. This time, a man thought he'd skip the rent part and go straight to own -- by stealing.

Assistant store manager Cody Flippin was helping someone else when the thief walked in Dec. 10. The man told Flippin he just wanted to browse, but then he left with two laptops.

"When he bolted out the door, I was gone. I was chasing right after him," Flippin said. "It seemed like he had it planned out. He was in here the day previous, looking around. He kind of scoped it out."

Wow, you pulled up your own picture, your own name, your own information. That helped me and saved me and the police a lot of time. –Assistant store manager Cody Flippin.

And just like that, the man was gone.

A couple days later Flippin was able to see what the suspect was looking at on the Internet: his own mug shot.

"Wow, you pulled up your own picture, your own name, your own information. That helped me and saved me and the police a lot of time," Flippin said of the thief.

West Valley police say the thief is 41-year-old Shane Ellis Caster.

EZ Rent-to-Own uses a software that can trace Internet actions on stolen computers. In this case, Caster pulled up his previous mug shot on the jail's website.

"That face just locked in my head," Flippin said. "Once I was viewing some pages I noticed the Salt Lake County. I pulled it up and there was a picture of the gentleman."

Detectives say Flippin was able to identify the man in a photo lineup.

According to jail records, Caster goes by several aliases, including Bobby Joe, Joseph Smith and Scrapyard.

All it took to figure out his ID was a simple software program.

Flippin is all gratitude. "To make it that easy... Thank you."

Tuesday, detectives filed an arrest warrant for third-degree felony theft. They say Caster has a long record of stealing.

E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com

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