Former American Idol contestant Todrick Hall had his iPhone and $400 stolen on Thursday as he signed autographs at an elementary school.

The season 9 contestant had just finished a performance celebrating the retirement of Santa Ana, Calif.'s, Hazard Elementary School principal when he put down his iPhone 5 in order to take photos with some of the students, according to Fox.

The iPhone case also doubled as a wallet and when Hall went to pick it up 20 minutes later, both the phone and $400 it contained were gone.

Luckily (and unluckily) for Hall, this wasn't the first time the Idol hopeful had his iPhone snatched. As a preventative measure, Hall installed the tracking app "Find My iPhone," reports OC Weekly.

With the help of a school security guard, Hall managed to track his missing phone to a local store where the guard recognized a student. While the intrepid duo was busy questioning the boy, his mother began to flee the store. However, Fox reports that they caught up with the woman who returned the stolen property.

Later the alleged thief, 47-year-old Bertha Alicia Avalos, was arrested on suspicion of grand theft, according to the Southwest Riverside News Network.

Tags: American Idol