Police: Stolen iPad leads to stolen AR-15 assault rifle

fox41.com ^ | 4 Mar 2011 | unattributed

[smokingfrog]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB Fox 41) -- When a Louisville man's iPad was stolen, he used GPS to track the accused thief down, and it turned out the suspect had apparently stolen from police, too!

A man realizes his iPad is stolen, so he activates its GPS device to track it down. He traces it here to 2nd and Broadway, and calls Louisville Metro police. Police question the suspect, Shaun Burton about the stolen iPad, and the victim chimes in again. "Officers approached that individual at that time and subsequently interviewed about the iPad and subsequently the alarm went off which was done by the victim," said LMPD spokesperson Dwight Mitchell.

Police found the iPad inside Burton's car, along with marijuana, cocaine, and drug paraphernalia. Burton told police he bough the iPad from a black male earlier in the day. But police say--that is not all they found. Police discovered stolen cell phones, cameras, a lap top computer, a stolen purse, credit cards, and burglary tools. Yet still, there was more -- police found an AR-15 assault rifle and a safe, stolen from a Jeffersonville Indiana Police officer.

"These items were stolen within the last 48 hours so that was a pretty quick turnaround to be able to recover the property and it was absolutely essential in this case," said Mitchell, "because of the fact that he had the GPS we were able to recover was not his from other victims."

Jeffersonville police tell Fox 41 the rifle was a personal weapon of the officer, and the safe was department property containing items for dog handling. Police say Burton is from Jeffersonville, and are not sure why he was in Louisville with the stolen items. Burton is charged with trafficking a controlled substance and receiving stolen property among other charges.

[SatinDoll]

I can see the future — he gets probation.

[mylife]

Just chip me /s

[Kenny Bunk]

Meth

[4rcane]

i love the fact taht iphone/ipad have gps. I’m constantly hearing stories how about gps have help solve alot of stolen good cases

[chuckles]

How do you turn on the GPS? And set off the alarm?

[SuperLuminal]

Dang! Another one of those approx 800 rnds/min “assault” rifles.../sarc

[AFreeBird]

There’s an app called “find my iPhone”. It works for both the iPhone and iPad.

You have to enable the ability in settings. But once you do, you can track the location of the device; remote lock it; send an alert and a message to the screen, and if need be, remote wipe the data.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Lucky guy. I can just imagine what would happen if I asked the local gendarmes to track down my missing iPad. Heh.

[C210N]

For the record, its not the GPS that locates the IPAD. The GPS chip inside the IPAD is a receiver only, and does not transmit anything whatsoever. OTOH, the WiFI and 3G if it has it, are transmitters, and can indeed send a position that can be used for tracking. I believe the IPADs without 3G do not have GPS... so it has to be a 3G unit.

[6SJ7]

I believe the IPADs without 3G do not have GPS... so it has to be a 3G unit.

Surprisingly, even the iPod Touch I own can take advantage of the "find my iPhone" service, and my iPod Touch only has WiFi. I think it actually triangulates on whatever WiFi signals it sees and computes its location. It does not even have to connect to the signals for reference. Of course it does need to connect to to least one WiFi signal to report its location. Just using available WiFi signals, it is kind of scary accurate in identifying its location, at least in an urban environment; like within about 15' of its actual position.

[coloradan]

and the safe was department property containing items for dog handling.

Illegal narcotics? Every police officer needs them ... to, um, do their job better. But it's ok if THEY have them, it's just not ok if YOU have them, because police are better than you are. They're different.

[Gilbo_3]

ky/geek tech/whats in the trunk of the cruiser ping...8^}

[Squantos]

POlice don’t use “””assault rifles””” they use...”””patrol rifles”””......:o)

Knew a person who used the gps technology to track a thief like this ....albeit he didn’t call the POlice. He an some of his buddies kicked the living crap out of the poor misguided thieving yout, painted his car with the words criminal, thief etc ..... Said thief moved away from our small town.

[Gilbo_3]

‘WE the People’ have some clout still in certain locales...8^}

[Squantos]

Here ya go... Never to old.

http://www.wimp.com/veteransniper/

[smokingfrog]

Good video! The old guy’s still got it.

[Squantos]

Indeed.....honor or heros while they are still alive.

[skinkinthegrass]

thanks, for the ping....Gilbo
an "ky/geek tech/whats in the trunk of the cruiser" ping... :)

A Kentucky Ping.

...for those interested. :D