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I don't blame them for this one... What's to stop someone having the same evidence or some mock of the "find my laptop" application to use police resources to s

I don't blame them for this one... What's to stop someone having the same evidence or some mock of the "find my laptop" application to use police resources to search a house? Can always then argue that some laptop was reset so they don't know the password and then require serial numbers etc to be known. If I were relaxing at home and had police search my house because someone said their Lenovo app was indicating their laptop was in my house - I'd be rather put out by it.

tdeck 4y ago
Consider that swatting is still a thing and that requires absolutely no evidence. That seems like a better way to ruin someone's day than reporting a property theft.
alpaca128 4y ago
> What's to stop someone having the same evidence or some mock of the "find my laptop" application to use police resources to search a house? The same thing that stops people from just going to the nearest police officer and falsely report their laptop as stolen by their neighbour without first mocking an app.
kevin_nisbet 4y ago
Well, I'd like to understand the police perspective better on why this might not rise to the level of a warrant. But I'm not totally sure I agree that if someone falsified the evidence that there is not something to stop them. You're presuming the owner wouldn't be able to show evidence they had legal right to the laptop. If they can show that, the person making the false report I would expect to be in a huge amount of trouble. I also don't know what the process is, would the police search the house and give the laptop back if they found it. Or would they take it as evidence and only release it to the owner at some point in the future, if they can themselves show better documentation, and it's not disputed. I just don't know enough about how police operate, but I would expect there is a big reason not to falsify evidence in this way.

tdeck 4y ago

Consider that swatting is still a thing and that requires absolutely no evidence. That seems like a better way to ruin someone's day than reporting a property theft.

alpaca128 4y ago

> What's to stop someone having the same evidence or some mock of the "find my laptop" application to use police resources to search a house? The same thing that stops people from just going to the nearest police officer and falsely report their laptop as stolen by their neighbour without first mocking an app.

kevin_nisbet 4y ago

Well, I'd like to understand the police perspective better on why this might not rise to the level of a warrant. But I'm not totally sure I agree that if someone falsified the evidence that there is not something to stop them. You're presuming the owner wouldn't be able to show evidence they had legal right to the laptop. If they can show that, the person making the false report I would expect to be in a huge amount of trouble. I also don't know what the process is, would the police search the house and give the laptop back if they found it. Or would they take it as evidence and only release it to the owner at some point in the future, if they can themselves show better documentation, and it's not disputed. I just don't know enough about how police operate, but I would expect there is a big reason not to falsify evidence in this way.