Posted on 09/04/2011 1:04:45 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
Apple's team searched the home, car and computer files, while police waited outside, the reports say. The investigators reportedly told the man that they had traced the phone's GPS signal to his house. When asked, he said he had been at the same bar where the phone was reportedly lost but that he didn't have it, the report says.
One of the investigators, who identified himself as Tony, gave the man living in the house a phone number and told him to call with any information about the lost phone, the report says. When the SF Weekly reporter called, a man named Anthony Colon, who said he was an Apple employee, answered, the report says.
Colon's LinkedIn profile, which he eventually removed, said he is a senior investigator for Apple and a former San Jose police sergeant.
The man, who reportedly said he's a U.S. citizen who lives with relatives, told SF Weekly that the people searching his home questioned his family's immigration status.
Apple has a history of working with REACT but apparently did not seek its services this time. The task force has struggled recently over budget constraints, prompting the organization to shut down an office and employ fewer officers, Sterner said.
Nor did Apple enlist the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An FBI spokesman said the cyber-program leader was not aware of such an investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
This is just wrong on so many levels. If I had something stolen, the cops would not let me search people's homes hoping to find it.
It's either that OR a marketing ploy to give iPhone 5 some attention. Both are very wrong and it appears the cops are idiots in both scenarios.
tech ping please.
It is to puzzle.
There are “Lojack” systems for laptops, which have been used to locate where a stolen laptop has been connected to the internet. Police can get search warrants based on a report from Lojack that it got a message from a reported stolen laptop calling home.
As for the reportedly missing Apple prototype, maybe the police didn’t look very hard because after all, the guy isn’t making a stink about having his apartment tossed. May have only electronically searched for it, and if it had been placed in a metal container or its battery taken out, it would be hidden from that kind of search. But it got Apple on the news.
What happened to asking for a warrant when the “police” show up at your door?
The report says the officers stood outside while Apple-affiliated investigators searched the man’s home. That violates the fourth amendment (assuming there is no warrant) and violates other laws (police can’t delegate their duties to non-public officials). If this story is as reported, then some fundamental protections have been violated.
Apple uberalles.
I’m not sure if this is a PR stunt or Apple employees being a bit too zealous. Based on what I’ve read in various articles it appears this is what happened:
Retired cop now works for apple investigation unit calls up some of his buddies on the police force. They go with him and they all act like cops (after all that guy was a cop for 26 years). So they let him search the guys house and they found nothing.
The police said they didn’t do any searches at first because this wasn’t official. But then it hits the news and they say oh crap lets file the report. They claim they just assisted apple to the house (I guess the iPhone can’t navigate them to the guys house with a police escort /sarcasm).
So the 2 apple employees impersonated cops. The cops that helped were used for intimidation to make sure they all looked like cops. Just showing up with 1 cop wasnt’ enough badges to overwhelm the guy. So they come with 4 cops and 2 apple employees. Flash badges and wammo which ones aren’t the real cops?
I guess the guy thought I had nothing to hide and why not let the cops in. I woulnd’t do that, but there are millions of americans that do/would.
But letting the cops in vs. letting apple in are two completely different things.
It’s not like Apple doesn’t have the money to pay this guy off. But the apple employees need to get a little jail time and pay their fines for impersonating a cop. This may slow down their jackbooted ways.
I understand that the gentleman consented to a warrantless search. Whether the police were bullies or just hinted they would go easy if consent was granted (and it looks like they did), we haven’t been told.
But it would be wrong, and bizarre, for the police to delegate that to Apple, not even having one officer watching. After all, the city would be responsible if something went wrong.
“What happened to asking for a warrant when the “police” show up at your door?”
Oh crap! Another one of Obummer’s Executive Orders! :0)
Also it’s not right for cops to just randomly knock on your door and say I need to look for stuff.
Sure you have the right to say not without a warrant, but the police aren’t supposed to just show up knocking on random houses looking for stuff either.
The cops should be fired. The apple guys should be arrested. And Apple should be fined heavily. And this guy should sue Apple. It’s not like it will put a dent in their balance sheet, but still they need to be taught a lesson. I guess one way it would hurt is if the judge allows punitive damages in that case the guy could make out like a bandit if he sues and wins. You know how much money you’d have to take from apple so that it had a punitive effect? Wowser!
The Apple people supposedly were there to vouch that they had detected the missing item at that house, and perhaps to use their snooping equipment to try to locate where it was in that house, but all that should have been controlled by the police, and it should have been made clear who was police and who was Apple. Apple and the cops both scrod up and both would, I think, be liable if not also criminally chargeable in this escapade.
And for Apple to search the computers in his home is beyond the pale - big time. Do they now have copies of his data? Who was allowed to see that data? Who has access to it now?
I am not sure but apples research an development folks sign away their rights pretty much to work there including such invasive searches of their property at work an at home etc...
If this was a secret product prototype.... They came after the intellectual property under that agreement I’d bet.
Just a thought to ponder.
It’s a pretty bizarre event....
If this fellow was an Apple developer (a coinkydink, given that the prototype was lost by another Apple developer) then it is a whole ‘nother bottle of cider. Can anybody say if that was the case?
Maybe this was another Apple employee? (See #13)
If so, Apple won’t be able to keep a lid on that for long. Everybody will be laughing at Apple.
I’ve noticed that as the United States slides into a third-world style government, the role of the police is changing. Instead of an impartial public service, it’s become a pay-to-play arrangement.
For example, these Apple thugs getting the cops to illegally search (or use the weight of their authority to allow them to search) a citizen’s home.
Bill O’Reilly gets his own personal detectives to investigate his wife’s boyfriend.
Congressmen enlist cops to intimidate citizens and confiscate cameras at town halls.
Here in Los Angeles, each fat slob on the City Council gets a cop as a personal driver.
We also have retired cops — but in full uniform and on motorcycles — “policing” location shoots. They have no authority, but you don’t know that unless you look real close at their ‘retired’ badges when they’re pushing you around. So which is it? If you’re retired, get out of that uniform and stop playing cop. If you’re a cop, you have no business taking money and orders from a film producer.
The cops are working for everyone but the public.
We’re becoming Brazil.
Don’t know .... Just an “if he was” thang to consider.
Ahh, that puts a different cast on it. Of course, if could be a publicity stunt (the program on the device is “invaluable”) and gets the buzz going. It happened before. But what do I know? (I use Windows and Linux.)
I was wondering about that, but you would think they’d mention that in the story as it would be a key piece of information...
When libs take over, the cops are prevented from doing their REAL jobs, and then instead plunge into a whole range of activities that are NOT their jobs.
They’re going to do SOMETHING, right? It ain’t getting cats out of trees, in San Francisco.
I was robbed by the SFPD—I mean that literally, I’m still in shock it ever happened— and I’m incredibly clean-cut. I even used to work for a PD.
Did you know as a cop in SF you can get a SEX CHANGE OPERATION and the city must pay for it...? That goes ditto if you have, “a domestic partner”.
The SF General Hospital police chief made $500,000 in one year, with overtime. I’m serious. His entire beat is ONE hospital.
If an illegal alien has a long record, you still can’t deport him from SF, which is a sanctuary city. A couple years ago one of them killed 3 members from a family of 4 and they STILL couldn’t deport him (a traffic altercation made him angry).
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