Recognize the Couple in these Selfies from a Stolen Kindle?

RESEDA, CA - Police today sought public help to identify a man and woman pictured in selfies taken on a Kindle stolen from a car in Reseda.

The device was stolen from an unlocked car in the parking lot of a Jack- in-the-Box in the 16800 block of Vanowen Street about 3:45 p.m. Feb. 9, the day before Ash Wednesday, said Los Angeles police Detective Mark Pearce of the West Valley Station.

“The Ash Wednesday part is important, because you can see the woman in the picture has ashes on her forehead, which tells us the pictures were taken the day after the theft,” Pearce said. “At the moment, we just want to identify the two persons in the pictures, and encourage them to contact us and return the Kindle.”

Ash Wednesday gets its name from the Christian practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of penance. A minister or priest marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross.

The photos were uploaded to “the cloud” online data storage network a few days later, probably when the Kindle linked to the internet, Pearce said. Detectives have tracked the Kindle to several locations in the San Fernando Valley since the crime.

“This theft is unfortunately all too common,” Pearce added. “It was a crime of opportunity with items left on a front seat, inside an unlocked car, with the driver yards away, and gone only a few minutes.”

According to the LAPD, last year, there were more than 500 thefts from unlocked cars in the West Valley, amounting to 12 percent of crime.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Pearce at (818) 374-7753. Anonymous tips can be called into Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.