Sheriff Helps to Return to Mom an iPad with Precious Photos of Her Late Baby

One year ago, a south suburban mom lost her iPad. And on that iPad were photographs of her beloved daughter who died of sudden infant death syndrome at 3 months of age.

The 28-year-old mom from Country Club Hills desperately wanted the photos back, so she kept texting to the device hoping the person who’d taken her iPad would have a heart and return the device to her.

Last month, she finally got a reply. For $300, she could get the iPad back. The mom explained about the photos, but that did not move the heart of the other person across the digital divide.

So the mom went to the Cook County sheriff’s department on May 25.

The person in possession of the iPad, later identified as 28-year-old Ashley Cobb of East Chicago, IN, according to the sheriff, had purchased it off the street and could not operate the device without the original owner’s password.

According to the investigation, Cobb would give the iPad back to the victim for $300, even after the victim explained the device had photos of her baby. Members of the Sheriff’s Police Special Operations Unit set up an undercover buy on May 28 in the 90 block of River Oaks Center Drive in Calumet City.

After the “buy” was made, investigators took Cobb into custody. Cobb was charged with theft of lost/mislaid property, a misdemeanor. Her next court date is scheduled for July 6 at the Markham Courthouse.

The iPad is now back in the mother’s hands.