7 ms·

Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

105 points by geierdmtr 10y ago

somecoder 10y ago
Unfortunate. And scary. What's a C-number?
- coldcode 10y ago
  Serial number on MacbookPros start with a C, mine does at least.
  - zodPod 10y ago
    In the article, the guy seemed to believe that it wasn't the serial number. That it was something you had to turn the computer on for or something. > Derek tells the woman the C-number is off. Not the serial number—they were looking for some other number in the computer.
    - teh_klev 10y ago
      I don't know Macs, but dell tag numbers are burned into the BIOS. Possibly checking that instead of a sticker that could have a fake serial is a more reliable method of verifying the number. i.e. your less than technically competent thief might not know about this or how to change the BIOS one.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  Phonetically C-number and serial number sound close enough that I'd suspect C-number is a memetic mutation of serial number. I wonder if "Derek" was trying to look up the UUID of the system. http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/mac-101-finding-your-macs-uuid/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/mac-101-finding-your-macs...
- tremon 10y ago
  It's your entry in Apple's global customer database. /s
- legulere 10y ago
  Maybe the MAC number with the letters spelled out and he didn't hear it fully?
fsloth 10y ago
Pointing a taser at someones neck sounds like incredible lack of professionalism. How long are cops trained there?
- virmundi 10y ago
  To further this: what happens if a Taser is shot close range? I assume the barbs could penetrate the spine. I don't know what would happen to the brain if shocked that close.
  - JshWright 10y ago
    Most law enforcement Tasers have a "Drive Stun" mode, intended for direct contact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#Drive_Stun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#Drive_Stun
- KingMob 10y ago
  It's not merely lack of professionalism, using a taser constitutes deadly force, like having a knife placed in your back. People have died from taser-induced heart attacks.
- Pxtl 10y ago
  This, to me, is the real problem. Not that they investigated an accusation of a crime, but that they immediately resorted to serious threats of violence. Police officers are trained to do this. The level of fear they carry with them is massive, and so they have an absolute need for control. Watch some police training videos and you'll see, many of them follow the same template of "officer managing mundane situatGUNFIRE!!!", driving home that any suspect could attempt to murder the officer at any sudden snap moment. So the officers are trained to be paranoid and demand complete constant compliance. Every unchoreographed, unexpected movement by the suspect could be preparation to kill, so the police must demand control of every possible movement of every person involved. Imagine how terrifying it would be to be, for example, in a suspect's house with many uncontrolled people wandering around, with that mindset. I understand that police are trained to control every situation, but the level of violence we read about constantly is disproportionate and ludicrous. It also colors every other interaction with the cops - even when an officer attempts to "control" the situation with the firm voice and glare that we've all seen, what should just be an attempt to project authority is instead an implied violent threat. With that in mind, it's no wonder that spot-checking/carding programs are getting banned across many major cities. Many police forces have created the impression that it is simply not safe to even have the casual interest of an officer.
coldcode 10y ago
Why would any police organization spend even 5ms on finding a stolen computer and have the complainant involved in a "sting"?
- pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
  maybe the same reason they do the same thing for weed and prostitution? you're an idiot.
- xt00 10y ago
  There are a lot of cities in the US where thefts are being treated by cops as a "meh sorry just call your insurance company.." So many police depts have been trying to do something to turn that mentality around since people are pretty pissed about it.. I had my laptop stolen about 10 years ago and that's exactly what happened.. The cop showed up like 5 hours after it happened and was like "yea good luck!" And catching people in the act is exciting for cops so it's something they are interested in doing.. It's good PR and interesting for cops.. Until this happens..
  - imjk 10y ago
    Same thing happened to me. I had my laptop stolen in Miami while I was there briefly for work. Spent half the day waiting on police and they wouldn't even write up a report for me. Told me to take it up with insurance when I got home. Of course when I got home, the insurance company said they couldn't do anything for me without a police report.
- fucking_tragedy 10y ago
  We throw money at them, tell them they are heroes and don't hold them accountable. It's the same reason we have no-knock SWAT raids on parents of toddlers. They have the time and resources and want an opportunity to do something different, get dressed up and play with their toys.
- sehugg 10y ago
  Yeah, that's pretty unusual. In my experience the police prefer to have the victim as hands-off as possible to avoid further drama. (And the S/N is still printed on the bottom of the case, right?)
pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
yeah.... unchecked assault, and you think an article is going to solve your problems. cowardly pussy. buy guns and matches and do it right. you want solutions or do you want things to get worse? they assaulted you and you did nothing. now you're enabling them to assault more people in more attack first questions later methods because you personally have turned people off of the caring service of the dedicated police. BOOM. boom is the answer, lady.
nsxwolf 10y ago
What's with pictures of him as a kid? What does that add to the story? Sympathy?
- ch4s3 10y ago
  I assume it is to help you empathize with the person the story is about. Some people are interested in the human element of news stories, the photos are for those people.
  - richmarr 10y ago
    I suspect they're also for the people who see a black man's face and react untrustingly.
- huac 10y ago
  Go look at any story about white murderers, and you'll find baby pictures as well. Of the shooter, not the victim.
xt00 10y ago
I've read in the past stories about cops getting tips from people that their stolen stuff is on Craigslist. At the time I thought it's cool they are catching people but I guess if they rely upon the thinking of a civilian who just had their laptop stolen going and saying "omg that's my laptop!!" "I mean sure the serial number is wrong maybe they are lying about that.. It's totally mine.. Hey police you gotta bust that guy!" It seems like that is very likely to result in lots of false positives since your average person is not a detective.. The police should be doing more digging on this stuff before they just assume stuff is gonna be stolen.. Especially if part of their MO is to look for people of color.. Completely unacceptable..
- orbitingpluto 10y ago
  I am responsible for creating a false positive. A notebook was stolen soon after I received it back from an OEM screen repair. The next day the same model showed up on Kijiji of all places. From the pictures, I was certain it was mine because there was an identical ExpressCard, the logo on the back of the screen was bent just as I had received it from repair, 2 of the 4 stickers were removed just as mine were, Also the RAM and hard drive were a non-standard upgraded amount. To top it off, it even had the ubiquitous glowing mushroom background. The cops checked it out, and the serial # and windows product key did not match. The 'collision' of my cosmetic and functional alterations matching with someone else may have seemed unlikely, but it really wasn't. The laptop did not have a SD card reader (the expresscard), the stickers were in annoying places, of course you're going to get the same size of upgraded hard drive & memory, and that logo attachment sucked. Even the mushroom background was common enough. The police showed up and asked to match the numbers at the door of the seller. There wasn't. They apologized. They phoned me back, and I apologized for wasting their time. I also made an apology to the seller, who was incredibly cool about it. Probably because no tasers were involved.
fucking_tragedy 10y ago
If this can happen over a stolen laptop, we have given the police too much power, resources and authority, and too little training, education and accountability. They are essentially armed goons for those with property and the right complexion. The people responsible for these actions make upwards of $180k a year and will suffer no repercussions for their actions. Let that sink in.
- bonestamp2 10y ago
  I generally agree with you and I'm generally very critical of the police and I think they handled this very poorly, but I don't think we know enough to say they shouldn't have been involved at all. If Derek is telling the truth that his stolen laptop with lots of personal information on it has turned his life into a movie then it sounds like there is a lot more to know.
  - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
    It's okay for them to have been involved, but it certainly wasn't okay for them to use violence in this situation. A taser is a potentially deadly weapon; it should only be used in response to deadly force not simply because someone is suspected of theft.
    - bonestamp2 10y ago
      I completely agree. Like I said, they handled it very poorly. But OP made it sound like they shouldn't have even been involved and I don't know that part is true.
  - fucking_tragedy 10y ago
    I can't think of a situation where events in someone's life justify this kind of behavior being inflicted upon an innocent person. I'd love to be proven wrong, though. They certainly should have been involved, but the way the went about their investigation was unprofessional and significantly affected a person who was completely uninvolved in the original crime.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mcphage 10y ago
> Unfortunately, you’ve got a lot of police misconduct, but I never thought it would be on this level. [...] You’re innocent until proven guilty. I was guilty until proven innocent. He was investigated, nothing was found, and he was released. He wasn't arrested, charged, taken to jail, let alone "guilty until proven innocent".
- thedz 10y ago
  He was handcuffed publicly, had a taser pointed at him, and suffered a decent amount of emotional duress without even knowing why they did it to him, or what his crime was. The "innocent until proven guilty" bit might not be 100% accurate, but this is still incredibly irresponsible on the part of the police.
- 1024core 10y ago
  > He was investigated, nothing was found, and he was released. Let me guess: you're a white male, aren't you? When these things happen to others but don't happen to you, you can pass it off as "mistakes happen". But when these "mistakes" happen only to a certain section of society, it's a cause for concern. Why was he handcuffed and had a taser on his back?? Why was he treated like a criminal in front of everybody? You don't put handcuffs on someone unless you want to detain them.
  - searine 10y ago
    >Let me guess: you're a white male, aren't you? This is an extremely shitty and racist argument to make, particularly on the internet where you shouldn't make assumptions about who people are. Were the cops wrong in being overzealous? Obviously. Is the poster automatically a "white male" because they consider an alternative perspective? No, they just have a different opinion than you.
    - jmcmichael 10y ago
      If one has ever been cuffed or had a weapon pointed at them, they're far less likely to be so cavalier in dismissing another's similar experience. Given that African Americans are far, far more likely to be unjustly detained in such a matter, it seems reasonable to assume that mcphage is a white male, given his callous response.
UVB-76 10y ago
> My dad had given me his extra computer, so I decided to sell mine: a 14-inch, 2012 MacBook Pro. Perhaps the cops were going after him for false advertising... Edit: A point made in jest, but in all seriousness, if he had actually advertised it as a 14-inch model, it would add to a reasonable suspicion that the laptop was not his. You see this all the time with stolen bicycles advertised online. You can spot the stolen ones a mile off, because the seller doesn't have a clue what it is they are selling.
imjk 10y ago
When I had my laptop stolen in Miami, I couldn't even get the lazy police officers to write up a police report for me.
known 10y ago
> The architecture student is the son of Goldie Taylor, a political commentator and editor-at-large for The Daily Beast
troncheadle 10y ago
Yeesh. I know I would react badly to having a weapon pointed at me by someone who is not in uniform. I hate hearing that this stuff is becoming more commonplace because I know if it happens to me I'll react badly and it will be my own fault when I end up dead or in jail. I guess now I have a super compelling reason to practice more mindfulness.
loeg 10y ago
https://github.com/mark https://github.com/mark And yet, he is a white male. It's a mindset problem where you project your experiences on everyone else.
- searine 10y ago
  >And yet, he is a white male. It's a mindset problem where you project your experiences on everyone else. Invalidating someones argument/opinion based on race/sex, is racist/sexist. Your argument also assumes "bad faith" based on race/sex, which is also racist/sexist.
  - loeg 10y ago
    No, you misunderstand my statement. I'm not arguing anything. You're missing the point. E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715126 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11716004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11716004 .
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 10y ago
  Please don't invoke someone's personal details here to make a point in an argument. That's a significant breach of HN's rules, and this argument is already nasty. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715005 and marked it off-topic.
  - loeg 10y ago
    Sorry. searine is really missing the point, though.
matwood 10y ago
IANAL, but why is a warrant not required to detain him and search his property?
- theandrewbailey 10y ago
  To the police, this was a sting. I'm not sure, but maybe warrants aren't needed for those? The "suspect" willingly allowed the property to be searched (drive attached and booted). The police overreacted, and according to Derek, ignored the plan and substituted their own. There's no detail on how Derek was robbed, but if it was more of a mugging, the police would consider any suspect "armed and dangerous" in ANY context.
- UVB-76 10y ago
  Unless I'm misunderstanding his account of events, the police did not search his property. The person whose laptop was stolen searched it, and the owner of the laptop consented to that search. The police detained him, I suspect, because they were satisfied they had reasonable suspicion he was handling stolen goods.
krapp 10y ago
The current title ("Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac") makes it seem as if the police were perfectly aware that the suspect was trying to sell his own property and just decided to harass him anyway. Rather, it appears the cops didn't "cuff him for selling his own Mac", they cuffed him because they believed it wasn't his Mac to sell. Is it too late to ask for a more neutral title?
ommunist 10y ago
This is how careers in police are made these days.

105 points by geierdmtr 10y ago

somecoder 10y ago

Unfortunate. And scary. What's a C-number?

coldcode 10y ago
Serial number on MacbookPros start with a C, mine does at least.
- zodPod 10y ago
  In the article, the guy seemed to believe that it wasn't the serial number. That it was something you had to turn the computer on for or something. > Derek tells the woman the C-number is off. Not the serial number—they were looking for some other number in the computer.
  - teh_klev 10y ago
    I don't know Macs, but dell tag numbers are burned into the BIOS. Possibly checking that instead of a sticker that could have a fake serial is a more reliable method of verifying the number. i.e. your less than technically competent thief might not know about this or how to change the BIOS one.
Declanomous 10y ago
Phonetically C-number and serial number sound close enough that I'd suspect C-number is a memetic mutation of serial number. I wonder if "Derek" was trying to look up the UUID of the system. http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/mac-101-finding-your-macs-uuid/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/mac-101-finding-your-macs...
tremon 10y ago
It's your entry in Apple's global customer database. /s
legulere 10y ago
Maybe the MAC number with the letters spelled out and he didn't hear it fully?

fsloth 10y ago

Pointing a taser at someones neck sounds like incredible lack of professionalism. How long are cops trained there?

virmundi 10y ago
To further this: what happens if a Taser is shot close range? I assume the barbs could penetrate the spine. I don't know what would happen to the brain if shocked that close.
- JshWright 10y ago
  Most law enforcement Tasers have a "Drive Stun" mode, intended for direct contact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#Drive_Stun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#Drive_Stun
KingMob 10y ago
It's not merely lack of professionalism, using a taser constitutes deadly force, like having a knife placed in your back. People have died from taser-induced heart attacks.
Pxtl 10y ago
This, to me, is the real problem. Not that they investigated an accusation of a crime, but that they immediately resorted to serious threats of violence. Police officers are trained to do this. The level of fear they carry with them is massive, and so they have an absolute need for control. Watch some police training videos and you'll see, many of them follow the same template of "officer managing mundane situatGUNFIRE!!!", driving home that any suspect could attempt to murder the officer at any sudden snap moment. So the officers are trained to be paranoid and demand complete constant compliance. Every unchoreographed, unexpected movement by the suspect could be preparation to kill, so the police must demand control of every possible movement of every person involved. Imagine how terrifying it would be to be, for example, in a suspect's house with many uncontrolled people wandering around, with that mindset. I understand that police are trained to control every situation, but the level of violence we read about constantly is disproportionate and ludicrous. It also colors every other interaction with the cops - even when an officer attempts to "control" the situation with the firm voice and glare that we've all seen, what should just be an attempt to project authority is instead an implied violent threat. With that in mind, it's no wonder that spot-checking/carding programs are getting banned across many major cities. Many police forces have created the impression that it is simply not safe to even have the casual interest of an officer.

coldcode 10y ago

Why would any police organization spend even 5ms on finding a stolen computer and have the complainant involved in a "sting"?

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
maybe the same reason they do the same thing for weed and prostitution? you're an idiot.
xt00 10y ago
There are a lot of cities in the US where thefts are being treated by cops as a "meh sorry just call your insurance company.." So many police depts have been trying to do something to turn that mentality around since people are pretty pissed about it.. I had my laptop stolen about 10 years ago and that's exactly what happened.. The cop showed up like 5 hours after it happened and was like "yea good luck!" And catching people in the act is exciting for cops so it's something they are interested in doing.. It's good PR and interesting for cops.. Until this happens..
- imjk 10y ago
  Same thing happened to me. I had my laptop stolen in Miami while I was there briefly for work. Spent half the day waiting on police and they wouldn't even write up a report for me. Told me to take it up with insurance when I got home. Of course when I got home, the insurance company said they couldn't do anything for me without a police report.
fucking_tragedy 10y ago
We throw money at them, tell them they are heroes and don't hold them accountable. It's the same reason we have no-knock SWAT raids on parents of toddlers. They have the time and resources and want an opportunity to do something different, get dressed up and play with their toys.
sehugg 10y ago
Yeah, that's pretty unusual. In my experience the police prefer to have the victim as hands-off as possible to avoid further drama. (And the S/N is still printed on the bottom of the case, right?)

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago

yeah.... unchecked assault, and you think an article is going to solve your problems. cowardly pussy. buy guns and matches and do it right. you want solutions or do you want things to get worse? they assaulted you and you did nothing. now you're enabling them to assault more people in more attack first questions later methods because you personally have turned people off of the caring service of the dedicated police. BOOM. boom is the answer, lady.

nsxwolf 10y ago

What's with pictures of him as a kid? What does that add to the story? Sympathy?

ch4s3 10y ago
I assume it is to help you empathize with the person the story is about. Some people are interested in the human element of news stories, the photos are for those people.
- richmarr 10y ago
  I suspect they're also for the people who see a black man's face and react untrustingly.
huac 10y ago
Go look at any story about white murderers, and you'll find baby pictures as well. Of the shooter, not the victim.

xt00 10y ago

I've read in the past stories about cops getting tips from people that their stolen stuff is on Craigslist. At the time I thought it's cool they are catching people but I guess if they rely upon the thinking of a civilian who just had their laptop stolen going and saying "omg that's my laptop!!" "I mean sure the serial number is wrong maybe they are lying about that.. It's totally mine.. Hey police you gotta bust that guy!" It seems like that is very likely to result in lots of false positives since your average person is not a detective.. The police should be doing more digging on this stuff before they just assume stuff is gonna be stolen.. Especially if part of their MO is to look for people of color.. Completely unacceptable..

orbitingpluto 10y ago
I am responsible for creating a false positive. A notebook was stolen soon after I received it back from an OEM screen repair. The next day the same model showed up on Kijiji of all places. From the pictures, I was certain it was mine because there was an identical ExpressCard, the logo on the back of the screen was bent just as I had received it from repair, 2 of the 4 stickers were removed just as mine were, Also the RAM and hard drive were a non-standard upgraded amount. To top it off, it even had the ubiquitous glowing mushroom background. The cops checked it out, and the serial # and windows product key did not match. The 'collision' of my cosmetic and functional alterations matching with someone else may have seemed unlikely, but it really wasn't. The laptop did not have a SD card reader (the expresscard), the stickers were in annoying places, of course you're going to get the same size of upgraded hard drive & memory, and that logo attachment sucked. Even the mushroom background was common enough. The police showed up and asked to match the numbers at the door of the seller. There wasn't. They apologized. They phoned me back, and I apologized for wasting their time. I also made an apology to the seller, who was incredibly cool about it. Probably because no tasers were involved.

fucking_tragedy 10y ago

If this can happen over a stolen laptop, we have given the police too much power, resources and authority, and too little training, education and accountability. They are essentially armed goons for those with property and the right complexion. The people responsible for these actions make upwards of $180k a year and will suffer no repercussions for their actions. Let that sink in.

bonestamp2 10y ago
I generally agree with you and I'm generally very critical of the police and I think they handled this very poorly, but I don't think we know enough to say they shouldn't have been involved at all. If Derek is telling the truth that his stolen laptop with lots of personal information on it has turned his life into a movie then it sounds like there is a lot more to know.
- TheCoelacanth 10y ago
  It's okay for them to have been involved, but it certainly wasn't okay for them to use violence in this situation. A taser is a potentially deadly weapon; it should only be used in response to deadly force not simply because someone is suspected of theft.
  - bonestamp2 10y ago
    I completely agree. Like I said, they handled it very poorly. But OP made it sound like they shouldn't have even been involved and I don't know that part is true.
- fucking_tragedy 10y ago
  I can't think of a situation where events in someone's life justify this kind of behavior being inflicted upon an innocent person. I'd love to be proven wrong, though. They certainly should have been involved, but the way the went about their investigation was unprofessional and significantly affected a person who was completely uninvolved in the original crime.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mcphage 10y ago

> Unfortunately, you’ve got a lot of police misconduct, but I never thought it would be on this level. [...] You’re innocent until proven guilty. I was guilty until proven innocent. He was investigated, nothing was found, and he was released. He wasn't arrested, charged, taken to jail, let alone "guilty until proven innocent".

thedz 10y ago
He was handcuffed publicly, had a taser pointed at him, and suffered a decent amount of emotional duress without even knowing why they did it to him, or what his crime was. The "innocent until proven guilty" bit might not be 100% accurate, but this is still incredibly irresponsible on the part of the police.
1024core 10y ago
> He was investigated, nothing was found, and he was released. Let me guess: you're a white male, aren't you? When these things happen to others but don't happen to you, you can pass it off as "mistakes happen". But when these "mistakes" happen only to a certain section of society, it's a cause for concern. Why was he handcuffed and had a taser on his back?? Why was he treated like a criminal in front of everybody? You don't put handcuffs on someone unless you want to detain them.
- searine 10y ago
  >Let me guess: you're a white male, aren't you? This is an extremely shitty and racist argument to make, particularly on the internet where you shouldn't make assumptions about who people are. Were the cops wrong in being overzealous? Obviously. Is the poster automatically a "white male" because they consider an alternative perspective? No, they just have a different opinion than you.
  - jmcmichael 10y ago
    If one has ever been cuffed or had a weapon pointed at them, they're far less likely to be so cavalier in dismissing another's similar experience. Given that African Americans are far, far more likely to be unjustly detained in such a matter, it seems reasonable to assume that mcphage is a white male, given his callous response.

UVB-76 10y ago

> My dad had given me his extra computer, so I decided to sell mine: a 14-inch, 2012 MacBook Pro. Perhaps the cops were going after him for false advertising... Edit: A point made in jest, but in all seriousness, if he had actually advertised it as a 14-inch model, it would add to a reasonable suspicion that the laptop was not his. You see this all the time with stolen bicycles advertised online. You can spot the stolen ones a mile off, because the seller doesn't have a clue what it is they are selling.

imjk 10y ago

When I had my laptop stolen in Miami, I couldn't even get the lazy police officers to write up a police report for me.

known 10y ago

> The architecture student is the son of Goldie Taylor, a political commentator and editor-at-large for The Daily Beast

troncheadle 10y ago

Yeesh. I know I would react badly to having a weapon pointed at me by someone who is not in uniform. I hate hearing that this stuff is becoming more commonplace because I know if it happens to me I'll react badly and it will be my own fault when I end up dead or in jail. I guess now I have a super compelling reason to practice more mindfulness.

loeg 10y ago

https://github.com/mark https://github.com/mark And yet, he is a white male. It's a mindset problem where you project your experiences on everyone else.

searine 10y ago
>And yet, he is a white male. It's a mindset problem where you project your experiences on everyone else. Invalidating someones argument/opinion based on race/sex, is racist/sexist. Your argument also assumes "bad faith" based on race/sex, which is also racist/sexist.
- loeg 10y ago
  No, you misunderstand my statement. I'm not arguing anything. You're missing the point. E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715126 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11716004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11716004 .
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dang 10y ago
Please don't invoke someone's personal details here to make a point in an argument. That's a significant breach of HN's rules, and this argument is already nasty. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11715005 and marked it off-topic.
- loeg 10y ago
  Sorry. searine is really missing the point, though.

matwood 10y ago

IANAL, but why is a warrant not required to detain him and search his property?

theandrewbailey 10y ago
To the police, this was a sting. I'm not sure, but maybe warrants aren't needed for those? The "suspect" willingly allowed the property to be searched (drive attached and booted). The police overreacted, and according to Derek, ignored the plan and substituted their own. There's no detail on how Derek was robbed, but if it was more of a mugging, the police would consider any suspect "armed and dangerous" in ANY context.
UVB-76 10y ago
Unless I'm misunderstanding his account of events, the police did not search his property. The person whose laptop was stolen searched it, and the owner of the laptop consented to that search. The police detained him, I suspect, because they were satisfied they had reasonable suspicion he was handling stolen goods.

krapp 10y ago

The current title ("Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac") makes it seem as if the police were perfectly aware that the suspect was trying to sell his own property and just decided to harass him anyway. Rather, it appears the cops didn't "cuff him for selling his own Mac", they cuffed him because they believed it wasn't his Mac to sell. Is it too late to ask for a more neutral title?

ommunist 10y ago

This is how careers in police are made these days.