Posse of SF police with battering ram sent to arrest architect for iPhone theft

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/01/18/sf-man-recounts-harrowing-mistaken-arrest-iphone/

by mysterypie • 9 years ago

68 17 9 years ago

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

frankharv• 9 years ago

Wonder if the cops lied to the judge or how they got a warrant with no probable cause.

We need to start making the individual officers responsible. You hurt an innocent guy by chaining him YOU pay. Not the taxpayers.

philip1209• 9 years ago

It sounds to me like apple thinks that they have the serial numbers of the stolen phones, and that this guy's phone was unfortunately mixed up with them. I wonder if they went to his apple ID address, or if they accessed his gps to track him. Sounds like a privacy violation if it was the latter . . .

Judgmentality• 9 years ago

I'm honestly not saying this to be antagonistic - I really don't understand what it is the SF police do. As far as I can tell they ignore all problems that involve homeless people (including assault and robbery), ignore break-ins, and tend to do odd things like this article mentions that just incite rage amongst the public. From my understanding a lot of the problems lie with the DA not prosecuting criminals, and many overly forgiving laws in the state of California. But I still have no idea what it is the SF police do on a daily basis.

emodendroket3• 9 years ago

I'm not local but I'd surmise from this article that they have a very chummy relationship with prominent businesses in the area.

hkmurakami• 9 years ago

They are very diligent about citing parking violations.

thirtyseven• 9 years ago

That's the SFMTA, they are a completely different city department.

kevin_thibedeau• 9 years ago

And yet someone had enough time to enter all the IMEIs from the stolen lot into the surveillance apparatus.

emodendroket3• 9 years ago

Hell, why not just hire the police out directly at this rate?

on_and_off• 9 years ago

why bother ?

emodendroket3• 9 years ago

At least it would be honest.

antoncohen• 9 years ago

It's hard to understand what the SFPD were thinking. Imagine if the phone was actually one of the 300 stolen in the heist. Did the SFPD actually think that the person using the phone, with their Apple ID attached, was one of the thieves? It isn't like they stole 300 phones to keep for themselves.

If it was stolen it would have been someone who bought stolen merchandise, knowingly or unknowingly. Knock on the dude's door, and nicely say "hey, sorry to bother you, but we think your iPhone is one that was stolen in a big heist. Do you have a receipt for the purchase?"

valuearb• 9 years ago

I would have waited till my wife got dressed before opening door. Am I dead now?

godzillabrennus• 9 years ago

I hope they sue and win.

Seems to be the only way for an average citizen to check authority in government these days.

brokenmachine• 8 years ago

If they sue and win, the average citizen is the one who pays, and that outcome does literally nothing to check authority.

garyfirestorm• 9 years ago

Why bother chasing a single iPhone? Unless you have a proof that this person is responsible for the heist. In that case why ask the wife where's the dudes iPhone? It's unfortunate that somebody has to endure this, suing seems to be the only way to get justice and it's unfortunate that we 'the tax payers' are going to pay for it.

tritium• 9 years ago

So, it’s safe to say that from birth to death, it’s possible to take a phone, from point of sale, all the way through the rest of it’s usage history, watch it float around, and then tie it presumptively to an individual, whenever the phone’s various identifiers appear on the network, and that might turn out to be pretty accurate most of the time?

I mean we’ve known about the identifiable aspects of cellular phones for a long time, but I’m not sure I’ve heard of a store claiming a number of unsold phones as stolen goods, handed off a list of targets to police, who then utilize technical resources, attempt to passively triangulate on anything in their jurisdiction, and then hunt them down.

In this case, it was point of theft to doorstep, and the accuracy was sacrificed for a rush job to “catch a bad guy” or “save lives” as is so often said, but consider the operations of a slower, more patient, even cautious operation.

shiven• 9 years ago

I hope they sue the underpants off each officer, their supervisor, the SFPD and the warrant issuing judge - who, in turn, should jail the person(s) providing the wrong IMEI, for perjury and contempt of court.

Posse of SF police with battering ram sent to arrest architect for iPhone theft

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