Carpenter's AirTags help uncover 'massive' case of stolen tools in Maryland • Hacker News Board

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

#271

Post by sharpy » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 5:52 PM UTC

kbos87 wrote: post #158

segmondy wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Or different departments pushing responsibility to each other...

I had a break in. Thieves took my check books, and tried to cash one in at a payday loan place at a neighbouring city. The payday place called me, and of course, I told them not to.

I called my police department with additional information, and they told me to file a report in the neighbouring city instead... And of course, the other police department told me to file with my police department as the original crime did not take place in their city...

And oh, I also had airtags that were taken so I knew which building the thieves took my stuff to. But because it is a multi-tenant building, the police wouldn't do anything. I offered to trigger the sound to narrow it down, but they didn't allow that either... Eventually, the thieves found the airtags and threw them out.

Anyway, I contacted my representatives to give police more help to help in cases like mine, but crickets is what I heard back. Not even an acknowledgement.

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

#272

Post by Eric_WVGG » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 5:53 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #202

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, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as an anti-theft device. Because if people would rely on that then I'm pretty certain some would go and sue Apple if they fail to retrieve their property - e.g. because a thief noticed the "you're being tracked" notification on their iPhone or Android. OTOH I'd really really REALLY love it if all the modern cordless power tools and their batteries…

The lawsuit wouldn’t be over the owner not getting their swag bag, it’d be over the injuries sustained by getting beaten over the head with a pipe wrench by the thief.

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

#273

Post by sokoloff » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 5:59 PM UTC

hcknwscommenter wrote: post #217

kbos87 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Given that 99% of the crimes are committed by repeat offenders, a simple dusting for fingerprints (costs pennies) could likely identify the culprit. But they don't bother. And they act like we've seen too many movies/tv shows. But when an "interesting" crime happens they do in fact dust for fingerprints (cheap!) and do all sorts of swabbing and testing (expensive). The police are lazy in CA especially. And yet they a…

> simple dusting for fingerprints (costs pennies)

If a cop is making $30/hr, and we allow "pennies" to be as much as $0.25, they would have to complete the entire dusting for fingerprints process in 30 seconds.

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

#274

Post by codezero » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:06 PM UTC

1024core wrote: post #96

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.

You will find similar pockets of responsive police in areas like Piedmont (in Oakland), Atherton, Hillsborough, etc.

The Atherton police reports are hilarious. I can't find the site readily, but I remember reading some of them when I worked in Mountain View. Things like calling the police because landscapers are mowing the lawn loudly, or because there's someone dressed as Santa Claus walking down a sidewalk.

edit: found it, the Santa line made it easy to search for lol: https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/08/27/the-best-of-atherton-...

Some highlights

  A resident reported a large light in the sky. It was the moon.
  A man was reported to be lying on the ground, possibly writing.

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

#275

Post by kube-system » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #154

kube-system wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cap…

Whether or not the work sucks is orthogonal to the many reasons slavery is bad. While inmates certainly don't have freedom, they are still not property of the state, and profiting from their labor is both immoral and presents a huge moral hazard to the broader criminal justice system.

> I can't figure out any way to read the comment that way

? The comment literally says:

> States with prolific death penalties just skip the religious angle.

They're talking about the state putting people to death. Human sacrifice is when it was done to placate the gods. Modern day capital punishment is when the state puts people to death to placate the retributive demands of the people.

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

#276

Post by bozhark » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:15 PM UTC

bobmcnamara wrote: post #152

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.

Did they happen to Govern South Dakota?

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

#277

Post by nucleardog » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:19 PM UTC

teitoklien wrote: post #216

consumer451 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, it sounds to me like a few users in this thread wouldn’t mind some good ole Sharia Law. Can’t steal if you don’t have a hand!

Why do you immediately think of it as that violent ? , Not tolerating the crime, involves arresting the person, and penalizing them with fines and other consequences for a while, and then if possible work on improving their living standards and help them get a job to get out of a life of crime. Not tolerating crime does not mean shooting people up or inflicting wounds on them, why should it be that extreme ? , either…

> Why do you immediately think of it as that violent ? , Not tolerating the crime, involves arresting the person, and penalizing them with fines and other consequences

Different branch of these threads:

> So they steal from you, and then you get the privilege of your tax dollars paying for their room and board. I dunno, I can see why some people might not be chuffed to bits by that solution.

If we’re going to make sure we get appropriate vengeance, and we’re not going to pay to incarcerate them… what do we have left? Physical punishment? Slavery? Unless bankruptcy of a person (without any assets to begin with) alone is a sufficient punishment for these crimes, I’m all out of ideas on where this could go.

You may not be who he was referring to, but the people he was referring to certainly seem to be present.

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

#278

Post by ForOldHack » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

The carpenters at the top end, those that have receipts, and serial numbers, may see a few tools, but for the vast majority of day workers, they will see nothing, not even a notification that the police will auction everything off, and will have to buy everything again, for maybe the third or fifth time.

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

#279

Post by ForOldHack » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:42 PM UTC

PointyDog wrote: post #71

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…

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.

You want to go there? Without facts?

https://policescorecard.org/md/police-department/howard-coun...

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

#280

Post by LorenPechtel » Sat, Jun 01, 2024, 6:52 PM UTC

sharpy wrote: post #271

kbos87 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Or different departments pushing responsibility to each other... I had a break in. Thieves took my check books, and tried to cash one in at a payday loan place at a neighbouring city. The payday place called me, and of course, I told them not to. I called my police department with additional information, and they told me to file a report in the neighbouring city instead... And of course, the other police department t…

Yeah, search warrants require probable cause to search a specific place. Air tags and the like are simply not accurate enough to pinpoint a specific unit in dense areas. I think the real answer here is to change how search warrants work: Allow a judge to approve a warrant for wherever the tag is--the police show up with equipment that can localize the tag. They do so in the least invasive manner they can, but the warrant gives them the power to go wherever the tag leads them.