Just a few days ago we told you about the case of the AirTags that helped find a stolen motorcycle, and they are the perfect accessory to find stolen objects. Now we have news of a similar case, albeit without AirTag, in which APple’s Find My network helped arrest a suspect. As 9to5mac reports, Apple’s network made it easy for authorities to arrest the suspect.
Apple, again, helping against crime indirectly
In this case we get an interesting story from the Colorado police in the United States. Worthy of an American movie, the authorities were about to arrest a suspect, who managed to get away in his truck dodging the classic security fences that the police put up on the roads.
The officer claims to have lost his iPhone in the suspect’s truck, at a time when he approached its rear
One of the officers, curiously, he had lost his iPhone inside the suspect’s vehicle, in an attempt to get to the back of the truck to grab his handcuffs. Unable to find his phone, the police tried to locate him as quickly as possible, using Apple’s Find My network.
Under United States law, it is not legal to use a GPS tracker to locate criminals but, in this case, the iPhone could be traced, being an accidental event. In other words: placing an iPhone or an AirTag as a locator is not legal in the US, but if it falls by accident, it is.
“If the facts are as stated, I doubt there has been a constitutional violation,” Kerr wrote. “First, if we accept as true that the phone was accidentally dropped in the car, the fall would not be a Fourth Amendment search because there was no intent to obtain information, which was required by the Jones case.”
By having the location network, They were able to find the phone and the suspect. Apple’s network is quite accurate, and allows you to easily track your position.
Without a doubt, a more than curious case of how an iPhone, by sheer accident, has ended up helping the police to arrest a suspect.