While the celebratory dance was taking place at the Sofitel, DSK was lunching seven blocks away at McCormick & Schmick, a restaurant on 52nd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. When he left the hotel at 12:28 P.M., he had caught a taxi, which then became delayed by heavy traffic and a street fair on Sixth Avenue. By the time he got to the restaurant, as its CCTV camera showed, it was 12:54 P.M. His daughter Camille and her boyfriend were already there. Because it was to be a short lunch, DSK deferred to his daughter’s request that he not use his cell phone. At 2:15 P.M., DSK hailed a taxi to go to the airport. Almost immediately, when he sought to make a call, he discovered that his IMF BlackBerry was missing. It was the phone he had arranged just that morning to have examined for bugs after he arrived in Paris, and it was the phone that contained the earlier text message warning him about the interception of his messages.
At 2:16 P.M. he called Camille, who had also just left the restaurant, on one of his spare BlackBerrys. He asked her to go back to the restaurant and search for his missing phone. CCTV footage at the restaurant shows her crawling under the table. At 2:28 P.M., she sent him a text message saying that she could not find the phone. Meanwhile, as DSK continued on to the airport, he was still attempting to locate the missing phone. At 3:01 P.M., he was calling it from his spare phone. He received no answer.
What DSK did not know was that his phone had remained at the Sofitel after he had left the hotel. As late as 12:51 P.M., which was 23 minutes after DSK left the hotel, the GPS on the phone showed it was still at the Sofitel, according to the records of the BlackBerry company Research In Motion. The company could determine this time because a BlackBerry, like many other smart phones, continues to send a signal as to its location even when it is turned off. BlackBerry could also electronically determine that the GPS signals on DSK’s phone had abruptly stopped at 12:51, indicating either that the battery had run out or that the GPS had been intentionally disabled. (A forensic expert later concluded from the strength of the previous signals that the latter most likely occurred.) So, either the phone was still in the presidential suite or someone at the hotel had taken it from the Sofitel after 12:51 P.M. (when it was no longer traceable).
At 3:29 P.M., evidently still unaware of what was happening at the Sofitel, DSK called the hotel from the taxi, saying, according to the police transcript, “I am Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I was a guest. I left my phone behind.” He then said he was in room “2806.”
At that time, Diallo had just left the hotel en route to Roosevelt-St. Luke’s Hospital to be examined, but the police were still at the hotel. He was asked to give a phone number, so that he could be called back after someone searched for his phone. He furnished it.
At 3:33 P.M., police and security staff, using a security electronic key, then reentered the presidential suite. The police did not find the phone.
When DSK was called back 13 minutes later, he spoke to a hotel employee who was in the presence of police detective John Mongiello. The hotel employee falsely told him that his phone had been found (it has never been found) and asked where it could be delivered. DSK told him that he was at JFK airport and said, “I have a problem because my flight leaves at 4:26 P.M.” He was reassured that someone could bring it to the airport in time.
“OK, I am at the Air France Terminal, Gate 4, Flight 23,” DSK responded.
So the police, who were behind the ruse, rushed to the airport.
At 4:45 P.M., the police called DSK off the plane and took him into custody. He was driven back to New York City.