Brickbat: Missed It by That Much

In May 2023, the St. Louis County SWAT team used a battering ram to knock down the door to Brittany Shamily's home in Ferguson, Missouri. Cops detained her and her family while they ransacked the place, searching for evidence related to a carjacking that had happened earlier that day. One of the victims told police his AirPods were in the car. They used the Find My app to locate them. It seemed to indicate they were in the home, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the family. But the Find My app isn't quite that precise: Police didn't find any evidence related to the carjacking, but according to the lawsuit, they did find the AirPods in the street near the house.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

Here’s the receipt for your husband, Mrs. Tuttle.

[rbike]

Airpod technology is way overrated. We have one attached to the cat. Pretty much useless in finding him. And he knows it.

[mad.casual]

If intentional. +1

It doesn't work because the AirPods need to be tethered to a phone. Get your cat a phone and tether the cat to it. Eminently more trackable.

[Fist of Etiquette]

At least they actually investigated a theft, so there's that. And it gave the SWAT team something to do, I guess.

[Longtobefree]

I suspect the latter is the real reason for the former.

[mad.casual]

Note to self: If stealing a car, also swipe the AirPods in order to throw them off the trail.

On the plus side, they're much more reliable when the government is tracking you day-to-day while you listen to music.

But, seriously, why do my headphones need a GPS?

[MatthewSlyfield]

"But, seriously, why do my headphones need a GPS?"

Well, if you have trouble remembering where you left them....

Note: I wear glasses, I have since I was very young. I have had a few incidents where I was looking all over for my glasses in a near panic. Only to walk past a mirror and find them, on my face. 🙂

[Ajsloss]

Think about it. The family's name is "Shamily"? The whole thing has been made up. They were too lazy to name the fake family the Smiths or the Joneses. It's a sham!

[Henweigh]

Since the state is cracking down on swatting, they needed more to do.

[Roberta]

The linked story reveals it to be much worse than this Brickbat indicates. The stolen car had already been recovered. The house wasn't just "ransacked", they punched thru drywall and a drop ceiling. For...Air Pods? They're just wireless earbuds! How much damage were they looking to do to find such a cheap item?

[sarcasmic]

They were probably frustrated that there wasn't a dog to shoot.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

My guess is they wanted to find the airbuds in the house so they could arrest someone in the home with the carjacking.

[Social Justice is neither]

This is the kind of pro-crime reporting I expect from Reason. From the write-up I see an error based off information they should rely on and an over-reliance on technology. The take away is apparently don't investigate crime because you might not be 100% correct?

From the added details Roberta provides above I can get outrage at the overzealous search for a mostly(?) solved incident, but not really from the summary presented.

[Don't look at me!]

Just stop busting down doors. Not too much to ask.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

The take away was the cops should do more investigating not less, especially before sending in the swat team to raid a home.

[AT]

Sounds like your contempt here should be for Apple, not for the cops.

[Dillinger]

>>>Ferguson, Missouri. Cops

and then they shot everybody in the back while their hands were up, yo?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Family obviously didn't have a dog.

[LIBertrans]

Close enuf for kleptocracy looter door-kicking and home invasion. But why no throwdown gun or dope?

[One-Punch_Man]

Hey Reason, where is the talk about the Police shooting in Chicago that you will try to use to start another riot fest.

He shot at the police 11 times but that doesn't matter right?

[AT]

Don't accept any media's "take" on it. View and judge for yourself. Chicago PD has released every video and report they have on the matter.

https://www.chicagocopa.org/case/2024-0003052/

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