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Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#151

Post by pwg »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #33
chucksta wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if each of the victims reported them to the police, the value of the items from each theft wouldn't add up to much in the grand scheme of things. I don't think you know how expensive commercial power tools and accessories are.. They cited 15k items with a range of 3-5 million. At 3 million that's $200 an item. Hardly peanuts. The article also says the tools likely came from a variety of sources

I don't think the police are going to be very interested in a random $200 theft.

One random $200 theft? Probably not too interested.

15,000 $200 thefts, all sitting in one spot in a storage locker, they just might be interested (and, it seems they were interested).

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#152

Post by bobmcnamara »

wingspar wrote: post #45

Off topic, but reminds me of the lost hunting dog whose tracking collar was found in a big gator, along with a lot of other collars. Solved a long running ‘lost hunting dog’ mystery. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/29/dogs-tracked-d...

Used to work at a dog tracking company. We had someone return a week old collar, torn to shreds with bio goo on it. Reason: no longer had a dog.

Would've been heartbreaking if it didn't reek of death.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#153

Post by dhosek »

gwbas1c wrote: post #40
k2enemy wrote: post #7

That is a huge inventory. How do stolen tools get fenced? Sent abroad? Craigslist and FB marketplace? I've bought some used tools from online classifieds, but it always seems to be a homeowner or business owner selling one or two things.

Makes me wonder if they were having trouble selling? It seems "poor business" to let stolen items sit for up to a decade.

When I was car shopping back 20 years ago, there was a 18-year-old car with low milage and a salvage title offered for sale that the seller claimed had been stolen and sat in a warehouse for over a decade. I think a lot of theft in general ends up being “poor business.”

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#154

Post by Dylan16807 »

kube-system wrote: post #149
Dylan16807 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The photo shows them walking in a line next to a guard that doesn't have to walk? I don't get it. A lot of prisoners get treated badly, but the inherent idea of being forced to do labor doesn't strike me as ridiculous. Just about everybody has to work. Comparing it to sacrifice is stupid.

Most people choose their work. I think the sacrifice comparison wasn't to labor, but to the fact that capital punishment is still practiced in the US.

> Most people choose their work.

Yes, but it's not nearly as big of a gap as the above comment suggests.

Being in prison sucks. If there's forced labor that approaches the same magnitude of unpleasantness, or even worse exceeds it, then that's a huge problem. But if it makes prison mildly worse than zero labor, that's not a tremendous issue.

> I think the sacrifice comparison wasn't to labor, but to the fact that capital punishment is still practiced in the US.

I can't figure out any way to read the comment that way, unless they rewrote part of it and totally messed up the phrasing.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#155

Post by ipqk »

rdtsc wrote: post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

So implicit, not explicit.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#156

Post by scotty79 »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #66
jjmarr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A common good like security should be socialized because the alternative is multiple independent groups enforcing property rights, and when they start to conflict, you get a civil war won by the person who spent the most on security. The idea that police are inherently corrupt because they developed from paid security forces ignores that the very process of development is what enshrined the rule of law over power.

I don't disagree that security should be a socialized good, it's a good idea. That doesn't change the fact that police in the United States and elsewhere were formed in the basis of law not to protect people but to protect property. Even today courts have ruled that police are under no obligation to protect civilians from direct, inevitable harm. They are not there to protect you, they are there to protect "the peace…

They are to protect order. So you, as a victim of a crime, are only a concern to them to the degree you make your harm public enough to disrupt order. Then they might attempt to solve a crime or make an impression they are doing something to prevent similar ones, but dissuading you from complaining too publicly about it (both by taking your report and showing it was useless) works just as well.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#157

Post by scotty79 »

google234123 wrote: post #75
cwmma wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an amount of theft that apple is OK with because preventing it would hurt sales and occasional theift of product they can easily brick is certainly under that limit, plus there is likelyreporting biases, as it's likely you've seen videos of it happening but when there are arrests or recoverys you havn't seen those reports.

This is a regressive and defeatist attitude. We actually don't have to tolerate this in a society- those engaging in it should be punished and forcibly removed if they aren't able to change.

Doesn't make it false. Reality doesn't change just because you are sad about it.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#158

Post by kbos87 »

segmondy wrote: post #115
PointyDog wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Howard County for a year. With the combination of county income tax and affluent property taxes, every service was exceptionally well funded. Having lived in Mountain View & Sunnyvale, CA as well for a decade my experience was Howard County itself had quicker and better services than those cities. It doesn't surprise me at all that their police department is competent and helpful.

Exactly this. Since there's less crime in affluent areas, the police actually have time to investigate what get's ignored in other areas. By also solving these crimes, it tells the criminals to avoid those areas, it's kind of a feedback loop.

I'll offer a counterpoint - I live in a nice building in a bit of a rougher part of a major city. I've learned that the police do show up thankfully, but it takes a very long time unless there's literally a life on the line. (Which, I know, is better than some other major cities.)

The couple of times I've interacted with them, it's been painfully obvious to me that they feel like they need to put on a performance for me, even if it's clear that it's an unsolvable crime. (In both cases, it was a property crime worth reporting, but also one with literally no evidence to follow up on.) I honestly wonder if some of the less well resourced people in my neighborhood even get a similar time of day from the police - my impression is that they probably don't.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#159

Post by jfoster »

rdtsc wrote: post #11

> He called police, who got a search warrant Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It's definitely a local thing. I'd expect the police to shrug, and say it's too bad, just file a report to use for insurance. I remember people saying "so what if you have tags, police won't do anything and you shouldn't be confronting thieves anyway". Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as a…

Apple can't acknowledge that Airtags are an anti-theft device, because if they do, they would also be implicitly acknowledging that they are a stalking device.

The only reason why they can sometimes work against theft is because thieves do not realize they are being tracked. That's because Apple's anti-stalking measures are sometimes insufficient.

Re: Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland

#160

Post by Anechoic »

WalterBright wrote: post #121
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree that security should be a socialized good, it's a good idea. That doesn't change the fact that police in the United States and elsewhere were formed in the basis of law not to protect people but to protect property. Even today courts have ruled that police are under no obligation to protect civilians from direct, inevitable harm. They are not there to protect you, they are there to protect "the peace…

> the fact that police in the United States and elsewhere were formed in the basis of law not to protect people but to protect property. I've never heard this. Reference, please?

https://nleomf.org/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-p...
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