From an article at my Backwoods Engineer blog on Dorner:
I actually have the sticker.
Posted on 09/05/2014 5:31:24 PM PDT by rey
A misstep by a company that tracks stolen vehicles using GPS sent authorities chasing after the wrong truck Friday, causing a multi-county pursuit that briefly stopped traffic on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa where deputies held an innocent man at gunpoint, CHP officials said.
GuidePoint, a stolen vehicle recovery system firm headquartered in Michigan, apparently installed GPS tracking devices on a fleet of company vehicles and alerted authorities Friday afternoon that a gray Dodge Ram 3500 had been stolen, Officer Marcus Hawkins said.
The company activated GPS to track the gray Dodge, but because of an unknown mix-up, they instead began tracking a white Ford owned by the same company that was heading from Mendocino County south on Highway 101, Hawkins said.
Authorities began trying to spot the truck, aided by continued updates from GuidePoint on the GPS coordinates.
In Sonoma County, a phalanx of patrol deputies and officers from multiple agencies staged along the highway looking for the truck. Two helicopters aided the search from the air.
The GPS information led a team of sheriff’s deputies to pull over a white Ford truck near Hearn Avenue for a “high-risk felony stop,” a technique used to intercept vehicles with unknown and potentially dangerous suspects, Hawkins said.
The deputies stopped all southbound traffic and held the driver at gunpoint and quickly learned that the Ford had not been stolen, the CHP said. They sent the driver on his way.
Meanwhile, Petaluma police and CHP officers stopped a gray Dodge 3500 at the Lakeville Highway exit and quickly ruled out that truck as well.
The white Ford was stopped again as it headed south, this time by CHP officers who pulled the truck over at the gas station at Kastania Road south of Petaluma to attempt to sort out why the GPS was telling authorities that the Ford was the stolen vehicle, Hawkins said. Officers contacted the company that owns the trucks and the tracking firm and learned that they had been tracking the wrong vehicle, according to the CHP.
It was unclear whether the stolen vehicle was being tracked or whether it had been found.
Hey, everybody! Who wants a GoogleCar?!?
Luckily the police have not received their military surplus drones with Hellfire missles .... yet!
Lucky his dog wasn’t there...
Between the cops and others here, I wonder, does anyone have a clue what they are doing?
The driver was very fortunate the cops didn’t shoot him immediately on approaching the truck. They blew their chances for extra paid vacation.
The police should assume citizens are peaceful unless the circumstances prove otherwise. So what if the truck was actually stolen? Do thieves routinely engage in gun battles with the police? Not likely.
I’m not saying police should haphazardly go about their business, but why resort to violence when it isn’t warranted? We keep reading about SWAT teams that burst into the wrong homes, police shooting at people unrelated to the crimes (for simply being in the wrong place or being dressed like the suspects), etc.. How many of these situations could be peacefully resolved at less risk to all involved?
It happened in the days before the internet as well.
Back in the 80s I was backing out of a parking lot and had to stop when the cop stuck his gun in my face. I did look like the wanted guy and I was driving a similar car.
All well and good, as long as I feel safer when out of the house. /s
I tend to agree. There are about 60,000 police assaulted by civilians and about 1200 of those involve firearms.
I think they should adopt the same rules of engagement our must abide by, do not fire unless fired upon.
Flashback: “I’m not Chris Dorner, don’t shoot!”
Exactly!
“You match the description”
Me: short skinny white guy who knows no to wear pants.
Suspect: fat black guy with stubble and low pants.
My response: “get your [censored] eyes checked! Do I look dark to you?!”
Ahhh...autocowrecked.
“Knows how to wear pants”
I love watching what I typed go wonky because the phone thinks it knows better.
Probably has insurance. Lawyers can't be far behind.
I matched the description. When the other dozen cops showed up and checked me out, they showed me his picture. He was a murderer/kidnapper/rapist.
I was in an area he was expected to return to in a car that was close enough to what he was thought to be driving. Their info said a possible dark blue Skylark and I was driving a dark blue Nova.
About 20 years ago I was very nearly shot in the back of the head with a 12g by the cops. In their defense, I did perfectly match the description of an escaped convict who had in the last 24 hours killed a cop and two civilians.
However, if I’d made the wrong move when they stuck the shotgun against the back of my neck, they’d have had a real mess to clean up in the convenience store.
Question: So why can't I use deadly force to protect my own property? Answer: I'm not a cop, and I'm not a rich company owner.
“Okay, the police drew on someone they thought was a thief.
Question: So why can’t I use deadly force to protect my own property? Answer: I’m not a cop, and I’m not a rich company owner. “
I agree. People ask if I think an item of property is worth someone’s life? My response is that is something they should have thought about before they took it. I do not believe you should have any reasonable expectation of safety when stealing. Furthermore, I ask what you call someone who works only to have property taken from them on a whim. Most people will answer a slave. I remind them that the civil war was allegedly fought over slavery, that the 13th amendment guarantees that I cannot be anyone’s slave, so by shooting a thief, I am protecting my 13th amendment rights.
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