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.
There are a lot of bad guys who do not want to go back to prison and will do whatever it takes to avoid being taken alive.
“There are a lot of bad guys who do not want to go back to prison and will do whatever it takes to avoid being taken alive.”
That’s especially true in California because of the three strikes law.
What was their first clue? The white vs grey color, or the fact that it was the wrong make/model of truck?
Jim Thorpe PA, I didn’t match, obviously.
But the cop didn’t seem to care.
Not the first time that happened either.
:-/
I want one!
We had a local cop killed a few years back by two nonviolent recent parolees. They ran over him after they robbed a bank.
For some real fun wait until computer driven cars are mandatory.
What could possibly go wrong?
I still suspect you after all these years!
Did they survive being "apprehended"? Somehow I doubt it.
At least in the old days, they didn't shoot you dead and ask questions later. I have a relative who was a cop back then in the 1970s (and still is). He used to tell us many a story. One that stuck with me is out they responded to a report they got over the radio by doing a stop, yanking the guy out of the car and beating him up. Then they heard a followup on the radio that the perp got caught nearby. Yup, they beat the wrong guy. And got away with it somehow, swept under the rug. This was when my relative was a rookie, he mellowed out soon after.
Never mind that the vehicle didn’t match the description of make or color. “The computer tells me...”
*facepalm*
common sense out the window
In the early 70’s some kids I knew from school were riding mini-bikes in an empty lot in an industrial park near my parent’s house. A local police officer came by and said they couldn’t do that, put the mini-bike in the trunk of the squad car (a Plymouth) and drove off. The kid’s dad went by the station to get the bike. “What bike?” asked the police.
A nearby ranch allows the Sheriff’s department to shoot there. You can always tell when they are there, not by the shooting but by the speeding cars and clouds of dust as they come and go. Do as I say not as I do.
Odd what that does for your respect for authority especially when they haven’t any.
Despite that, I was sitting in a Taco Bell watching a police officer stop a vehicle. The drivers was obviously wanted for something. As the officer tried to cuff him he took a swing at the cop. The cop struck him in the head several times with what looked like a sap with no affect. The guy ran off with the cop in pursuit. I ran out and tackled the guy for the cop as he came by. I thought I would be in trouble, but he and the other officers were appreciative. Surprisingly some of these guys don’t fight well.
I've had a few encounters when younger, where cops are on the take for themselves. Was with some buddies when we got stopped by cops. They automatically start rummaging in the car looking for stuff, popped the trunk and inquired about the tool chest in there. My friend Bobby says he doesn't know about it, someone else left it there. They pop it open and it's full of illegal fireworks, M-80s, barrel bombs, rockets etc. "Not yours?". "Nope" says Bobby. So the cops open the trunk of the police car, and dump all the fireworks into their trunk. Then they ask Bobby, "You want your tool chest back?". Bobby says "Sure.". And off they went. Cops must have enjoyed using those fireworks with their own families.
The b@st@rds have too much time on their hands.
Maybe they should be on the lookout for muzzie cell members.
In NYC, the cops show up the next day and tell you to call your insurance company.
“I’m not saying police should haphazardly go about their business, but why resort to violence when it isn’t warranted?”
They shouldn’t BECOME the hazard to innocents. These days though, it is any excuse to draw the penile extension. But let someone point a gun at them, and they go ballistic.
A SWAT cop did that a while back. Pointed a gun at a woman through her kitchen window. She freaked out and ran, thinking she was under attack. Especially when foul mouthed guys started yelling at her. She had grabbed a gun. The piglet actually had the gall to tell her he didn’t appreciate having a gun pointed at HIM, after he had already freely pointed one at her.
FR rules don’t allow me to respond to officer Dumb##@ as he deserves.
This is what LE has become. Little different than good old Red Coats.
Obviously, CHP doesn’t have enough to do and should reduce its personnel.
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