Stupid Criminals of the Day

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This story has a robbery, 50,000 witnesses, and a car chase ending in a near fatal crash. Yup, just another crook stealing an iPad. :eek:

Three men were in custody Wednesday night after a street robbery of a woman's backpack containing an iPad in lower Pacific Heights ended with a major crash about a mile away in front of a playground, police said. "It's a chronic, chronic problem," Mannix said. "There is such a high resale value for iPads and iPhones - criminals are taking them left and right. And recently they're not just taking them, but they're assaulting people severely."
 
Value your health and safety? Don't buy Apple products.
 
I remember, back in the day when the first Ipods were released, there were recurring incidents of people being assaulted for them as well.
Clearly, people love technology... even criminals! :D
 
How many thousands of dollars in damages plus more in hospital bills and ambulance charges over a $500 or $600 piece of gear?

Let's get our priorities straight folks, someone's iPad or iPhone IS NOT worth getting innocent people killed over.

I can see high speed chases for violent crimes, armed robbers, murderers, rapists and the like but petty theft? Nah. Especially when they had the plates, they could just as easily tracked the car with unmarked units.
 
I swear, when will we get good stolen device protection?

It should be straight forward and set up when you buy and register the tablet or smartphone.

The process should go:
You: "Oh look new shiny... Shut up and take my money!"
Purveyor of overpriced goods: "Thank you for giving us your money... blah blah... Please log in to your Stolenphone.com account, if you don't have one let's create one."
You: "Yay! I love my new shiny."
Asshole: "Give me yo wallet and yo phone!!!"
You: "Don't shoot me!"
You: "Oh no Stolenphone.com, someone stole my phone."
Stolenphone.com: "Phone disabled. If you would like to re-enable this device, log into your account using the app on the device and answer the security questions."

And POOF! the market for stolen smartphones and tablets is gone.
 
Hmmm... replace "Phone disabled." with "Phone semtex detonated."

Poof indeed! :D
 
Personally I wouldn't if every piece of tech had a remote bricking feature. $500-700 isn't the big deal to me. If it is, get insurance. Its the data I wouldn't want someone running away with.

Also just knowing I could make a phone call so the theif had a dead useless device would be some comfort after getting mugged.
 
Walking around with 5 $100 bills in your hand, or an iPad ... is there really that much of a difference?
 
If they drove a Mercedes; should they be able to afford an ipad or 2?
 
The only "funny" or seriously sad part to this is that Apple can stop this completely, as could any of the carriers by simply tracking the phone. ATT uses IMEI numbers, Sprint uses their own numbers, etc. Simply add a phone to the stolen list, and presto, that phone is no longer useable anywhere. Share the numbers, where applicable, freely with any other phone company. Market for stolen phones GONE in the U.S. If they can get other countries to sign on, all the better.

The MAIN problem is that they make money from stolen phones. They could easily do what I just suggested, but it would restrict their own profits. Doing what is right and doing what makes money can be different things, but then, isn't that the same thing the thieves are thinking, in a way?
 
In this case the cops were equally as stupid.

"destruction that ended just over a mile away with a traffic collision that injured four people, including an 11-year old boy at a playground"
"Police initially said the driver of the Mazda minivan had life-threatening injuries, but she was released from the hospital in good condition Thursday after an overnight stay in the emergency department"

The police should have broke off pursuit or trailed the suspect from a safe distance, then made an arrest after the suspects exited the vehicle. They should have not turned a simple snatch & flee theft into a high speed case where other innocent civilians were injured.

Was anyone threatened with a weapon? No.
Was anyone injured prior to the suspects fleeing? No.

So at what point did it make sense to alert the suspects (in a moving car) of their presence? With all the trouble California police have had in recent years involving high speed chases in rural areas, they should have known better than to alert the suspect of their presence. And after doing so, they should have known to break off before additional innocents became involved. Pure stupidity, on both sides.
 
and how do the police follow someone from a safe distance? define the distance? you mean in a city cops can follow you at X distance and not loose sight of you or the car?

your also saying that just cause a perp snatched an item from someone without brandishing a weapon that the perp is sure to be unarmed.

maybe if we are living in a police state where there are cameras everywhere and the state can track you remotely but thank god we arent living in that type of country/society yet.

your holding the actions of the criminals to be the responsibility of the police. criminals will always flee arrest. duh!
 
As witnesses dialed 911, the thief jumped into a waiting silver Mercedes sport utility vehicle and sped off with two accomplices

drove off in MERCEDES SPORT UTILITY seriously?????
 
"Although it doesn't look like a lot of damage right now, The photographer in the van said it shook so badly, it felt like an earthquake".

So the photographer confirmed that the criminal barely touched the van? Last time I checked, getting in a severe car crash feels nothing like an earthquake. Ask the Asian who was sitting bloodied in his car if it felt like an earthquake, and I bet he says no.
 
"Although it doesn't look like a lot of damage right now, The photographer in the van said it shook so badly, it felt like an earthquake".

So the photographer confirmed that the criminal barely touched the van? Last time I checked, getting in a severe car crash feels nothing like an earthquake. Ask the Asian who was sitting bloodied in his car if it felt like an earthquake, and I bet he says no.

Although I will say they certainly know alot about earthquakes since they happen all the time over there. Just look at the markings on the road next to the van... it was shaking so badly they Wrote STOPP in dissarray on the street...
 
and how do the police follow someone from a safe distance? define the distance? you mean in a city cops can follow you at X distance and not loose sight of you or the car?

your also saying that just cause a perp snatched an item from someone without brandishing a weapon that the perp is sure to be unarmed.

maybe if we are living in a police state where there are cameras everywhere and the state can track you remotely but thank god we arent living in that type of country/society yet.

your holding the actions of the criminals to be the responsibility of the police. criminals will always flee arrest. duh!

You didn't even read the article.

The perp got the ipad and ran off in a silver mercedes (of which they had the license plate, obviously). Even if they didn't get the plate initially, there are CCTV cameras in almost every corner of most major cities that they could have used to identify the perp's vehicle. But the cops stupidly chose to tail the perp who subsequently went on to do more stupid stuff and hurt others. In essence, they led a chase which caused thousands of dollars of loss and injuries all for a stupid iPad.
 
You didn't even read the article.

The perp got the ipad and ran off in a silver mercedes (of which they had the license plate, obviously). Even if they didn't get the plate initially, there are CCTV cameras in almost every corner of most major cities that they could have used to identify the perp's vehicle. But the cops stupidly chose to tail the perp who subsequently went on to do more stupid stuff and hurt others. In essence, they led a chase which caused thousands of dollars of loss and injuries all for a stupid iPad.

Considering they're rollin' in a Mercedes, there's a good chance they may be involved in drug trafficking/gang activity as well. The worst thing about it is that they'll likely walk, or get parole far too quickly, and it will all be for nothing.

Apple could actually do something to reduce this AND get some extra profit. The sale of used iDevices is going to occur, whether or not they are involved, so why not make something off it. Have a "Verified iDevice" service where Apple will buy-back your iDevice at something like $20-50 off the private party rate after they verify you're the original buyer, or contact the original owner. Then resell at $20 over the private party rate with a 30 day guarantee against failure, etc (not accidental damage obviously), and probably sell a few grossly overpriced accessories in the process.Money for everyone, Apple gets some goodwill for "caring about it's customers", and then just run a few ads suggesting that private party iDevice sales are likely stolen and could be de-activated at any time.
 
Considering they're rollin' in a Mercedes, there's a good chance they may be involved in drug trafficking/gang activity as well. The worst thing about it is that they'll likely walk, or get parole far too quickly, and it will all be for nothing.

possibly, but I don't like to assume. They were already under probation, and running from the cops is a felony itself. Combined with the other stuff I don't think they'll be walking so easily.

Apple could actually do something to reduce this AND get some extra profit. The sale of used iDevices is going to occur, whether or not they are involved, so why not make something off it. Have a "Verified iDevice" service where Apple will buy-back your iDevice at something like $20-50 off the private party rate after they verify you're the original buyer, or contact the original owner. Then resell at $20 over the private party rate with a 30 day guarantee against failure, etc (not accidental damage obviously), and probably sell a few grossly overpriced accessories in the process.Money for everyone, Apple gets some goodwill for "caring about it's customers", and then just run a few ads suggesting that private party iDevice sales are likely stolen and could be de-activated at any time.

doesn't all this stuff have GPS? what's so hard about reporting a stolen product with serial #, disabling the device and locating it? I'm assuming this is too much work.
 
Hmmm... replace "Phone disabled." with "Phone semtex detonated."

Poof indeed! :D

Didn't Mossad take someone out exactly that way?

doesn't all this stuff have GPS? what's so hard about reporting a stolen product with serial #, disabling the device and locating it? I'm assuming this is too much work.

There's an app for that... The problem is I can reset a phone back to factory fresh and the app goes away. This needs to be built into the OS - as soon as a device hits a network, any network, it needs to lock, no matter if it's been reset or not.
 
Criminals this dumb really need to just be wiped off the face of the earth in a permanent fashion.

I propose the death sentence. Not for stealing the iphone but for causing such a ruckus and risking the lives of so many innocents.
 
How many thousands of dollars in damages plus more in hospital bills and ambulance charges over a $500 or $600 piece of gear?

Let's get our priorities straight folks, someone's iPad or iPhone IS NOT worth getting innocent people killed over.

I can see high speed chases for violent crimes, armed robbers, murderers, rapists and the like but petty theft? Nah. Especially when they had the plates, they could just as easily tracked the car with unmarked units.

So it's the victim and the cops fault this happened? And by definition, a violent felony (robbery--the taking of property from another by force or threat of force) was what they were being chased for.
 
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