141–150 of 170 posts
The most interesting part of this story to me - the guy checked the serial number of his camera by uploading a picture taken by that camera to an online tool, which I presume read that out of the EXIF tags. It was useful in this case, but it's still somewhat creepy that every picture some significant subset of people are taking includes personally identifiable information.
"The cops questioned him for a bit [...] and arrested him. It turns out he had a very realistic airsoft gun on him, which would have made running away with the camera a helluva lot scarier. When he was fingerprinted at the station it turns out this guy also had a warrant out for his arrest, and that he was using an alias all this time."
A guy running around with a realistic looking gun, a warrant out for his arrest, and this person just visited your party yesterday night. Brrr...
*"The cops questioned him for a bit [...] and arrested him. It turns out he had a very realistic airsoft gun on him, which would have made running away with the camera a helluva lot scarier. When he was fingerprinted at the station it turns out this guy also had a warrant out for his arrest, and that he was using an alias all this time."
A guy running around with a realistic looking gun, a warrant out for his arrest, and this person just visited your party yesterday night. Brrr...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently Apple is providing the NYC PD assistance in this regard: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nypd_apple_corps_PmTgzglh... > Every time an Apple device is stolen, detectives attempt to get tracking numbers from the victim or online records. > That number, known as the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity, is then shared with the officers in Police Headquarters who pass it on to Apple. > The Califo…
It's the IMEI, and Apple is certainly not alone in helping - any wireless provider can help, and indeed there are services available to law enforcement to determine if a cellular device is registered to another wireless provider, and contact them. Every cellular provider can also blacklist an IMEI, and it won't be able to be registered on any network, effectively bricking it.
This is very country specific and requires the cooperation of all service providers. Once the phone leaves the country and registers on different network the block becomes ineffective. Thieves here know the phone will be blocked so they send it on to Russia, for example.
A few years ago, my wife made a mistake and left her purse in her class room as she went out for a smoke break - while it was a pretty poor decision to leave her purse unattended, this was a class of about 10 students that she thought she could trust. As she was driving back home, she realized she didn't have any money for the toll to cross over the bridge - which should not have been the case. Luckily the toll booth…
Sounds like Target takes loss prevention as seriously as it does advertising. Impressive.
If true, I'm pretty sure this wasn't in San Francisco or Oakland. I could maybe see one of the smaller Peninsula PDs helping out like this. Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous (if the police weren't there); there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun. If you theoretically have a CCW and can be legally carrying a gun for self defense, it's still physically dangerous, and legal…
> Much safer to just gather information and give it to the police. The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job. > Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous...there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun. Every day walking around a city involves a non-zero chance of a fight. Every day interacting with other humans in civilization can involve a knife or…
That very much depends on the department, the particular officer, and how you present your case.
I had a cop in the very high-crime town I was living in take my statement about having seen my stolen bike ridden by someone and then go looking for that person and find him.
Like you said, he didn't have to do that, but he was probably not busy and I had previously reported it stolen. Didn't hurt that he was coincidentally the same one who had come to my apt when I reported the bike (and other stuff) stolen.
What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't assume the police won't help. You have nothing to lose by asking them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Always remember more often than not the people participating in these crimes do it due to mental illness or desperation. Uh OK, we should accept the loss of our hard earned cash /stuff because some thief is depressed and needs the money. Confronting them can lead to bigger issues, jail for example and it's harder to argue self-defense when you went there, but they surely do need a thorough beating. Stay the hell away…
To quote myself above 'I'm not saying let them get away with it' I didn't even say not to beat them. If beating them is what you have to do, so be it. All I said was the greater community shouldn't celebrate it. My point is I think these style of stories are glurge and I think people need to try and be aware of that. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Glurge
Yes, the community should celebrate it - passing along the story that should yield some empathy in others regarding the feeling of being violated when your property is stolen; propagating the meme that thievery is wrong and that thieves often get caught.
Making excuses for thieves or decreasing the perceived impact of their behavior or the consequences to them only enables them.
Being the victim of theft is extraordinarily violating, and making it any easier for perpetrators of that violation is deplorable.
Sorry, but this sounds fake.
How so? The only thing I'm skeptical about is I would imagine his local PD would be way busy to go on a petty theft bust but other than that it sounds legit.
Please... this was probably the only real crime solving these guys did all week.
I'm going to leave myself open to the "citation needed" charge by generalizing here, but doesn't most police activity involve pointless traffic stops, traffic direction, prosecution of victimless vice crimes, domestic disturbance calls, and paperwork?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't you double-counting here? On net the merchant only loses the merchandise. The net debit to the merchant's account is zero.
correct maths are: merchant gets 10000 then returns 10000 and still has to pay 7000 to vendor for the goods. net loss is 7K, not 17K
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aren't you double-counting here? On net the merchant only loses the merchandise. The net debit to the merchant's account is zero.
Oh yes you are correct. In this case the merchant only loses the cost to the vendor ($7,000). Good catch.