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NYPD makes many arrests in iPhone/iPad sting operation

by Mike Schramm Dec 20th 2011 at 2:00AM

The New York Police Department ran an undercover sting operation recently on vendors and businesses accused of selling stolen iPads and iPhones, and came up with a whopping 141 arrests. That's a pretty crazy bust -- apparently undercover officers actually went out to businesses with iPhone 4s and iPad 2s that they claim were stolen, and when the business owners agreed to buy them, they swooped in for the arrests. The businesses were previously suspected of selling stolen merchandise, however -- I am not a lawyer, but just sending cops in to try and sell stolen goods seems like entrapment to me.

Not all of the arrests were necessarily of the businesses' owners; it's possible that the cops used information given to make other arrests as well. But that's a nice swath of (alleged) criminals to pick up. Apple's devices make for quite a gray and black market around the world, and it's good to see that the NYPD is cracking down on these stolen items.



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The New York Police Department ran an undercover sting operation recently on vendors and businesses accused of selling stolen iPads...
 

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7 Comments

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ckress

In Australia each phone must have a unique ID embedded in the phone, by law. If a phone is stolen, the phone company sends a special code that turns the phone into an unusable electronic brick. As you might expect since this system has gone into effect, the number of stolen phones has dropped dramatically. Too bad the US prefers to make use buy more phones instead of protecting our phones with a similar system. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/03/BAHO1M7J9U.DTL

December 20 2011 at 11:25 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
Tom Douse

It may not be entrapment but its still not right to be the law and setup situations to see if someone will take the bate.

December 20 2011 at 11:32 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
Optical Serenity

Those of us who have had something stolen from them, appreciate law enforcement when it goes out to stop this type behavior. The more police departments enforce theft laws through these type undercover operations, the less people will be tempted to steal something and try to resell it.

December 20 2011 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
talonz55

Gives the phrase "jailbreak" new meaning, huh?

December 20 2011 at 10:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason Litka

It isn't entrapment. Entrapment is where law enforcement officers get someone to do something illegal that they wouldn't have otherwise done. These stores were already suspected of selling stolen goods and all the LEOs did was provide circumstances that made them do it again.

December 20 2011 at 8:33 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Ex-Felon

That's not entrapment...lol. The cops didn't MAKE them buy the phones

December 20 2011 at 2:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ex-Felon's comment
Voltron T2

True...but how do you know that this wasn't the first time they were offered a stolen item? They were just "suspected" before but had no proof that they had done anything illegal in the past.

And what if they previously were buying stolen goods but had no idea that they were stolen? I am sure thousands of people buy things from eBay and Craigslist everyday and have no idea that they are stolen.

December 20 2011 at 11:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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