The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: March 11, 2012

Official News page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: GPS ERROR MAKES POLICE INVADE WRONG HOME

by Hazed

Police in Nottingham, England, were in hot pursuit of a stolen iPhone. They thought they’d find it easy to track down the missing mobile, because they could use the “Find My iPhone” feature to track the phone using its GPS fix.

The software duly reported back the coordinates of where the phone was located, which was a house in Sherwood, so the cops hot-footed it to the address and bashed down the door.

Trouble is, the robber wasn’t there, and neither was the stolen phone. The GPS had led the police to the wrong place.

What makes this even more unfortunate is that the police are refusing to pay for a new front door, leaving the landlord with a £500 bill, much to his annoyance.

“I understand why they broke in,” said Robert Kerr, “but what I don’t understand or accept is the refusal to pay for the damage done - especially since nothing was found in the house.”

In response, a Notts Police spokesman said, “Our officers took the decision to search the property in Rufford Road in good faith with the intention of quickly locating an offender and recovering stolen items from a burglary reported in Woodthorpe on the afternoon of 6 December.

“However, that decision was not simply made on the basis of iPhone tracker information but was taken after speaking to local residents who informed officers that they believed someone had been at the usually unoccupied property in Rufford Road that evening.”

That seems pretty outrageous. Kerr has complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission so let’s hope they see sense.

Source: http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/29/inaccurate_iphone_tracking_software_
leads_cops_to_wrong_house/


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