Armed robbery? there's an app for that
How do you use an iPhone to commit the perfect robbery? Use it to hack into the banking system? Count cards at the Casino? Those are the stuff of CSI scripts. Real life is more mundane.
Master criminal Jerome Taylor decided to hold up a restaurant in New London, Connecticut. His high-tech scheme involved pulling on a mask, pointing an iPhone at the staff and threatening to shoot them with it. The chef, suitably unimpressed, pointed a meat cleaver back at Taylor, at which point the wannabe robber said he was "only kidding" and decided that beating a hasty retreat was the sensible option. He was picked up by police several hours later.
Meanwhile, over in Lake County, Illinois, a SWAT incident has introduced a new term to my vocabulary. A man was driving home from his job at a school when he accidentally "butt dialled" his wife on his mobile phone. His wife heard muffled noises along with him muttering to himself before being cut off. Based on what she'd heard, the woman promptly dialled 911 to tell them she believed her husband was "being held hostage by a man with a gun in his office". A team of 30 officers in bullet proof vests and sporting assault rifles were rushed to the school which was deserted apart from a couple of members of staff. Thirty minutes later, the embarrassed woman phoned 911 again to explain her husband had just arrived home, complete with phone in back pocket. Nevertheless, the police continued to search the school for a further two hours, "as a precaution".
28th January 2011