Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, MobileMe
iPhone turns Pittsburgh man into Columbo, helps cops catch robbers
The MobileMe Find my iPhone service certainly paid off for a Pittsburgh area man. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that police said the man was robbed at gunpoint in Shadyside (a neigborhood on the east side of Pittsburgh, home to an Apple Store) by two men who asked for his credit cards and the PIN numbers. Police say he turned over his wallet, PIN numbers, and his iPhone. Later the man used his computer and MobileMe to find the location of the phone, and police located the crooks at a gas station. Officers recovered a pellet gun, stolen ID cards, credit cards and cash.
Three men have been charged in the incident with device fraud, conspiracy, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime. 2 of the 3 are also being charged with robbery.
The victim, not identified by the police, is probably a happy guy, and will no doubt renew his MobileMe subscription when it comes up.
One caution. If something similar happens to you, don't go chasing the thieves by yourself. Confronting criminals is serious police work & nothing for the amateur sleuth to try.
[Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and thanks to Sean for the tip]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
joshytheman1192 said 12:57PM on 8-30-2009
I have to admit, I really do love hearing these types of stories when they happen.
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Michael Hodges said 1:32PM on 8-30-2009
tsk tsk... stupid thieves. never bring a pellet gun to a potential real-gun fight.
Not in this case mind you, but this is Pennsylvania, we citizens legally carry *real* guns here.. concealed or openly, and those "pellet-gun bandits" made out lucky this time.
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Scott said 3:19PM on 8-30-2009
Sounds like someone's been watching too many Westerns. What's next? Showdowns at high noon?
Izzy said 3:44PM on 8-30-2009
Same law in AZ. I saw an 80 year old guy carrying an old six shooter that was bigger than him. I coulda bitch slapped him before his hand found the handle.
Jinto said 4:48PM on 8-30-2009
I would like to see that tried, Izzy! But we all know who would be dead and who would not be.
Fred said 9:54PM on 8-30-2009
Glad this guy got his stuff back. BTW, couldn't he have given a fake PIN?
@ Scott
It amazes me that people still cling to this picture that the "wild" west was gun fights every 10 minutes. Crime was much lower in that day and age than it is now. The law abiding, gun carrying citizen is not the person you need to fear and in fact is the person more likely to save your life in a situation that dictates the use of a gun. The police are not going to run in there and save you, it has been proven over and over that the police have no obligation to "protect" private citizens.
@Michael
Discretion is the better part of valor, and knowing when force is warranted is an important part of being an armed citizen. I agree with some of what you said, but I suspect that (as happens in 2 million instances a year on average) simply drawing the weapon would have ended the robbery especially since the assailants were armed with a pellet gun. And if more people carried concealed it'd put the criminals on notice that people are not push overs, and maybe they should just obtain jobs as it's less risky.
I'm not with the comparison of street crime to Nazi Germany BTW. It's stupid and it doesn't fit the story. Maybe if all the Germans had wanted was to steal the Jews iPhones WWII wouldn't have happened? Any reference to Hitler, the Jews, etc in an argument equals instant interweb fails.
Anyway, good luck and be careful out there folks. I have no doubt in my mind that the neighborhood was just fine. Crime doesn't stay in a specific zip code, be aware of your surroundings and aware of those around you. Armed or not that's the best way to avoid being a victim.
Sorry for rambling.
Fred said 9:55PM on 8-30-2009
I should have been more specific, my second point was directed and Michael Rose.
Torsten said 2:28AM on 8-31-2009
Very lucky: A robbery could easily lead to two or threes deaths of innocent if everyone is armed.
lh said 2:30PM on 8-30-2009
The article recommends not chasing the criminals yourself, just be a hapless victim. I say carry a gun in a crime infested area of any city to protect yourself. We have a right for self defense.
The Jews in Europe were also hapless victims.
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DrWho said 2:59PM on 8-30-2009
It doesn't sound to me like the person in this incident was a hapless victim, in fact he get the perps arrested by doing the sensible thing and calling the police. No gun required. Victim, yes but hapless, certainly not.
And what do Jews in Europe have to do with this?
Michael Rose said 5:15PM on 8-30-2009
Your comment isn't only offensive, it's moronic and ill-informed too. Congratulations! You win the Internet trifecta.
Shadyside isn't a "crime-infested area," in fact it's one of the wealthier and safer neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.
He wasn't a "hapless victim," and his property has been recovered while the perps are heading for jail. Would a better outcome have been several injured or possibly dead people? Or a shootout on a busy city street that could have resulted in murdered bystanders? Are you suggesting that the assailants wouldn't have gone after him if he was carrying a concealed or open weapon? If it was concealed, how would they know?
The "Jews in Europe" weren't mugged by iPhone-craving street punks, they were methodically and callously exterminated by Nazi policy (despite armed resistance in some cases). As a descendant of German Jews, I have to say that your comparison of a guy who called the cops to get his iPhone back with the victims of official genocide says more about the pathology in your own brain than it does about crime on our streets.
Sell your six-shooter and buy yourself a clue.
NeuroJoe said 8:55PM on 8-30-2009
You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair, that they made the Jews wear.
G said 2:44PM on 8-30-2009
Curious: I received two months of free MobileMe with my iPhone 3G S in July. It's going to expire in two weeks, and I don't need it for anything else so I'm going to let it. If my iPhone were stolen after that time, could I quickly renew my MobileMe account to locate it? Would my username associated with the account (and the iPhone?) be technically deactivated and not available? I had a nice, short username back in the iTools days and found that I could not resurrect that one with this freebie account (no one else has it either).
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DrWho said 3:08PM on 8-30-2009
Well you'd have to at least have Find my Phone turned on on the phone and your .mac/mobile me email set up with push on the phone for this to work. So I doubt it.
Jake said 4:22PM on 8-30-2009
Was he standing at an ATM? If not, why'd he give correct PIN numbers?
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m4cG33k said 5:40PM on 8-30-2009
As someone who grew up in Pittsburgh and lived there for over 20 years, I can tell you that the location the victim was at was on the BORDER of not WITHIN one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. I personally would not be hanging around that area alone at 1AM but that's just me.
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Andy said 5:54PM on 8-30-2009
PIN- Personal Identification Number, ergo 'PIN number' makes absolutely no sense, and is certainly redundant. I really wish journalist would stop making such silly mistakes.
Great story though.
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matt said 8:20PM on 8-30-2009
PIN number is a "Britishism", considering that Mel has worked in the UK it's acceptable. I'm from the UK and I always say PIN number and not PIN.
Dave Barnes said 11:31PM on 8-30-2009
Yes. Similar to people who say: VIN number when talking about the id number on the motor vehicle.
+. said 8:54AM on 8-31-2009
this is awesome. both what he did, as well as the fact that he actually got a police response. a few years ago, my iBook was stolen in the city's Oakland neighborhood (next to Shadyside) & i managed to track the thief as far as his IP address.... which was received by the Pittsburgh police with an "okay, we don't know what this means and don't have time to pursue it anyway, but we'll smile/nod at the amateur sleuth". granted, GPS is much more precise/immediate, but it also says a lot for the cops that they were actually willing to listen this time around.
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