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Thief Temporarily Makes Off With iPhone During GPS Tracking Demo
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I am glad my monitor is calibrated and I can see the white letters you used to create the step effect gooood job? now why not use space?
I assure you that this story is true.
Since this website has resulted in a lot of traffic to our website, I came here to see what's up. Here's what I can add:
The bicycle thief was just unlucky to have grabbed the iPhone during the demonstration. If he had looked at the phone, rather than stuffing it in his pocket, he would have seen it tracking his route through the city. The software is meant for the cell phones of police, fire and military personnel -- not for thieves.
One possible reason why the San Francisco police may have responded so quickly is that the robber had mugged another women a short while earlier, so they knew this person was a repeat offender. When he was captured, he had her phone too.
I do not know how to obtain police reports. However, it must be possible, as I assume that is how the San Francisco Chronicle got the robber's name. The perpetrator was arrested fot Grand Larceny, and will likely go to jail, because even if we dropped the complaint (which we will not do, because it was not a stunt), the other person who was robbed will not. That's a heavy price to pay if this was really a stunt.
If I find out that the police report can be viewed on-line, I will post the URL. If anyone else knows how to do this, feel free to post it.
While it doesn't prove that the incident wasn't staged, I have attached a track of the robber's path after robbing the iPhone.
David Kahn
Since this website has resulted in a lot of traffic to our website, I came here to see what's up. Here's what I can add:
The bicycle thief was just unlucky to have grabbed the iPhone during the demonstration. If he had looked at the phone, rather than stuffing it in his pocket, he would have seen it tracking his route through the city. The software is meant for the cell phones of police, fire and military personnel -- not for thieves.
One possible reason why the San Francisco police may have responded so quickly is that the robber had mugged another women a short while earlier, so they knew this person was a repeat offender. When he was captured, he had her phone too.
I do not know how to obtain police reports. However, it must be possible, as I assume that is how the San Francisco Chronicle got the robber's name. The perpetrator was arrested fot Grand Larceny, and will likely go to jail, because even if we dropped the complaint (which we will not do, because it was not a stunt), the other person who was robbed will not. That's a heavy price to pay if this was really a stunt.
If I find out that the police report can be viewed on-line, I will post the URL. If anyone else knows how to do this, feel free to post it.
While it doesn't prove that the incident wasn't staged, I have attached a track of the robber's path after robbing the iPhone.
David Kahn
Attachments
It's a valid police report
Why is it staged?
The Chronicle is the main news source for the San Franciso Bay Area (population 5-6 million). The reporter has worked for them for 10 years (google him). He interviewed the police, who said they booked the suspect for grand theft...
"Toure was captured a half-mile away about 10 minutes later, at 4:01 p.m., said police Sgt. Troy Dangerfield. He was booked into jail on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property."
People do stupid things all the time. A friend is a bank manager in Seattle, and told me he's had about 20 armed robberies, with an average take of $500.
Who's stupid enough to do armed robbery, with a high chance of capture and a 10-20 year sentence, for $500? Looks like at least 20 people were that stupid in his bank alone!
Why is it staged?
The Chronicle is the main news source for the San Franciso Bay Area (population 5-6 million). The reporter has worked for them for 10 years (google him). He interviewed the police, who said they booked the suspect for grand theft...
"Toure was captured a half-mile away about 10 minutes later, at 4:01 p.m., said police Sgt. Troy Dangerfield. He was booked into jail on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property."
People do stupid things all the time. A friend is a bank manager in Seattle, and told me he's had about 20 armed robberies, with an average take of $500.
Who's stupid enough to do armed robbery, with a high chance of capture and a 10-20 year sentence, for $500? Looks like at least 20 people were that stupid in his bank alone!
vB code takes the spaces out in most cases. And yes, depending on your monitor you can still see the letters though maybe you won't notice them on first glance. Of course it always shows up in a quote with the grey box.
I am curious about this. I have found that it takes much longer to locate my iPad and sometimes it doesn't work at all with Find My iPhone even though my iPad is at home on our WiFi network, which led me to believe that for WiFi only versions it had to be awake and logged into a WiFi network. However, I have gotten it to find it when it was not awake, so who knows. That is certainly one advantage to having the 3G version, especially when it is not in range of a WiFi network. However, the additional price was not one I could justify.
Good story. Next time don't leave all that valuable stuff in a bag you aren't willing to shoulder. It's easy to think it's just a diaper bag and toss it in carts or elsewhere.
From on a bike? A little tricky.
And in this case it isn't being stupid, it's Murhphy - unless the lady was walking around with a sign on her head "I'm demoing a GPS tracker on my Phone!"
For all of the Doubting Thomases...
I know it seems staged, but things like this do really happen. Here's a link to my similar story that I just posted in the iPad thread.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/974043/
I know it seems staged, but things like this do really happen. Here's a link to my similar story that I just posted in the iPad thread.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/974043/
Donal MacIntyre once tried to get mugged in Brixton by wandering around as a wealthy businessman in a suit, holding a laptop bag, pretending to be drunk, asking gangs of teens for directions and waving his smartphone around in their faces as if he was offering it to them.
It took until the second night before someone snatched his phone even though everyone I know who's lived in Brixton has been mugged at least once. No matter how prevalent crime is in an area, if you actually tried to get into trouble there, it probably wouldn't kick off quite as quickly as all those scenes in movies where someone is forced to go to a rough area dressed as an obvious target.
Faking a snatching, of course, is not a very smart idea either, especially in a country where the police are allowed to shoot you just for trying to escape.
Besides, as the man said himself, the app is not aimed at consumer security, but for the emergency services themselves, so the incident doesn't scream "PR stunt" quite as loudly as it first seems.
It took until the second night before someone snatched his phone even though everyone I know who's lived in Brixton has been mugged at least once. No matter how prevalent crime is in an area, if you actually tried to get into trouble there, it probably wouldn't kick off quite as quickly as all those scenes in movies where someone is forced to go to a rough area dressed as an obvious target.
Faking a snatching, of course, is not a very smart idea either, especially in a country where the police are allowed to shoot you just for trying to escape.
Besides, as the man said himself, the app is not aimed at consumer security, but for the emergency services themselves, so the incident doesn't scream "PR stunt" quite as loudly as it first seems.
You conspiracy theorist are a hoot. In order for this to be staged they would have had to either bribed law enforcement officials to play along or have hired someone who was willing to be charged with a felony and face potential jail thing for this alleged marketing stunt.
I swear, people seem to completely turn off their brains the moment they start posting **** on internet forums.
I swear, people seem to completely turn off their brains the moment they start posting **** on internet forums.
Apple obviously staged this whole thing for publicity, just like the iPhone 4 leak to Gizmodo! There IS NO Covia Labs, just like there WAS NO German beergarden! David Kahn and Jason Chen don't even exist, they're actually Apple admins! MUHAHAHAHA...
Ah, conspiracies...
Ah, conspiracies...
Its all the Illuminate fault and those dam lizard overlord from the center of the world they are all behind this.
Why do you want to be a friend of a thief?
How do you know its him, do they have photos of they guy for you to verify?
Eh, they are however supposed to use intelligence. Shooting someone who just knifed a guy is one thing - a grab&go thief would be a different animal.
I don't know the answer to either of your questions.
Put OS X on the desktop you list in your signature: http://www.osx86project.org/
Its all the Illuminate fault and those dam lizard overlord from the center of the world they are all behind this.
With help from the Freemasons!
I don't believe any of it actually happened. No one stole a phone, no one was arrested, it was completely fabricated. Law enforcement was never involved. And it was not in "The Chronicle." It was a story on the "Crime Scene" blog on the chronicle's website.
Alert and Respond website doesn't even have any video demonstrations or screen shots. Too bad. I'd like to see it.