Police arrested a man last month for stealing phones from the Capitol

The sequence of events began around 12:30 p.m. on June 17, Capitol Police said Thursday. A man taking a public tour of the House side of the Capitol rode an elevator from a public area to a fourth-floor hallway where there was a sealed briefing room for a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that oversees the Pentagon’s budget.

People entering such a room, which often houses confidential information, are not allowed to take their personal devices inside, so the employees had stored their devices in an unsecured box outside the room, police said. When the employees left the room at 1:40 p.m., six of the four employees’ work and personal iPhones were missing, according to a Capitol Police affidavit filed in Superior Court.

Meanwhile, surveillance cameras showed that at 1:15 p.m., a man got into an unlocked Jeep Cherokee in a parking lot on D Street NE and was quickly confronted, the police affidavit states. The man ran from the parking lot, then sat behind a wall on Massachusetts Avenue and was arrested.

When officers investigating the attempted carjacking learned about the stolen cell phones, they retraced the fleeing man’s steps and found all of the phones and other belongings in some bushes on First Street, police said.

The committee has now installed lockers outside the room, Capitol Police said.

David Octavius ​​Daffin, 36, of Granada Hills, California, was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to court records. At his first court appearance on June 18, a Superior Court judge ordered him to stay away from the Capitol Building, Grounds and all congressional buildings as part of his release conditions.

On June 22, Daffin was arrested again at a Walmart in northwest DC. Police say he shoplifted and groped a store employee. He was charged with sexual assault and theft and jailed pending a detention hearing on July 3. He was then released, according to court records.

The following day, July 4, according to court records, Daffin went to an officer at the Capitol and said he needed help by seeking mental health services. The officer found that Daffin was barred from the Capitol and arrested him. He is currently being held without bail in the Washington Jail pending a hearing Friday morning.

Elliott Queen, an attorney representing Daffin on the sexual abuse and trespassing charges, declined to comment. No attorney is listed for Daffin on the phone theft and car theft charges.

The New York Times was the first to report on the theft of cell phones in the US Capitol.

Keith L. Alexander and Paul Kane contributed to this report.