If You're Going To Steal Something, Perhaps Avoid A Phone Demoing A GPS Tracking Program
from the protip dept
These days, lots of smartphones have apps for tracking the location of the phones, so stealing one of them is probably becoming increasingly risky for thieves. But, still, in a move that didn't bode well at all, Horatio Toure supposedly used his bicycle to ride up to a woman in San Francisco carrying an iPhone, and snatched it out of her hands. The only problem? The woman had it to demo a new "real-time GPS tracking program." It took all of about 10 minutes for the police to track down Toure, about a half a mile away. Nice work.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Smells like a Setup
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Re: Smells like a Setup
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I wonder when parents will start using those phones to track their children and go straight to the motel room they are in.
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Won't get fooled again....
Seems like this wannabe criminal really....
*Puts on sunglasses*
....phoned it in.
YYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
(Bonus points because the moron's name was Horatio)
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Re: Won't get fooled again....
Well done, sir.
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Well that's Good News
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Re: Well that's Good News
See, what you do (even years ago, but easier now) is claim it was stolen a day or two after. Sprint leaves a few calls on your bill, then you have the numbers. You may have had to wait until your bill showed, but still... It's easier now because you can see calls almost as they happen on your online account.
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Re: Re: Well that's Good News
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Re: Well that's Good News
Sprint could have helped me recover everything by just telling me where the damn this was, but rather they just said that it was in use while I was on the phone and offered to turn it off...
The bastards lost my business immediately after...
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Re: Re: Well that's Good News
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Re: Re: Re: Well that's Good News
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Re: Re: Well that's Good News
I had a phone stolen once. The response from the carrier? Call the police and report it stolen. Yup - that's the right response. Contributing to someone going off to attempt to recover their own stolen property is negligent and probably actionable.
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Re: Re: Re: Well that's Good News
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i know what happens next time
only witnesses tell tales
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One for the book of heroic failures along with..
The burglar who left his dog at the scene. The police said "home boy"...
The bank robbers who drove their getaway car straight into the police station.
The bank robbers who got stuck in the revolving door.....twice.
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Re: One for the book of heroic failures along with..
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Re: One for the book of heroic failures along with..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmMO3pn3dk
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My favorites....
Shot by the owner.
The man who held up a bank where the teller _required_ that he fill out a form _before_ she handed him the money. Bank policy. He did, using his _real_ name and address.
Police picked him up a short time later.
The man who robbed a bank and then walked across a field to his house, _behind_ the bank he robbed.
Police followed his trail to his house and arrested him.
The woman who robbed a bank and used a taxi cab as the getaway car. Which she had drive her home.
Police asked the taxi company where she was dropped off and arrested her at her house.
I've always thought that police were rather dumb. The only thing saving us is that as a rule the crooks are even dumber.
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Re: My favorites....
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More stupidity
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/03/30/Fleeing-suspect-ends-up-in-prison-yard/UPI-3850126 9976177/
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Tracphone teft...
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Ok really?
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http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/07/21/google-helping-u-s-army-to-launch-missiles-from-th eir-phones/
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If a phone doesn't have GPS, they often have locks on them which basically renders it useless to your average thief anyway.
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