FERGUS FALLS — A cell phone and cooperation between citizens and law enforcement brought two crooks to justice in Otter Tail County.

On Monday, Rachel Rae Foster, 23, of Albert Lea, was convicted for theft, a gross misdemeanor, and sentenced to time served in jail, two years of probation and $778 in fines, fees and restitution. Her accomplice, Robert James Blake, 27, of Brooklyn Center, was convicted for second-degree burglary, a felony, April 30. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation and a suspended jail sentence.

On Feb. 10, court records state, Foster and Blake stole a purse from a vehicle in the Larry’s Supermarket parking lot in Battle Lake. A cell phone was inside of the purse, and law enforcement was notified that the phone’s owner’s husband could track the phone with a phone locator application.

Staying in contact with the husband, law enforcement learned the location of the phone as it headed east on Interstate Highway 94, eventually ending up in Golden Valley. The pair was arrested for local charges — among other things, it appears that they stole a car — and police found stolen items in their vehicle.

Upon further investigation, law enforcement learned that Blake and Foster also burglarized a home near Underwood.