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Looking For iPad, Police Find 750 Pounds of Meth
An anonymous reader writes "Hot on the trail of a stolen iPad using the 'Find my iPad' feature in iOS, Police in San Jose tracked the stolen device back to an apartment complex where they then stumbled onto 750 pounds of meth. All told, the meth is worth about $35 million on the street. The seizure was one of the largest drug busts in recent memory."
Wait, you mean investigating actual crimes leads to discovery of other, actual crimes?
SAY IT AIN'T SO
Even drug lords cannot afford the new insane iPad prices.
Had found its way back to Apple HQ?
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Wait, so there's a drug that's MORE addictive and in-demand than something Apple produces? Who'dathunk?!
Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screw-up.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE iPAD!?!
Wait, you mean investigating actual crimes leads to discovery of other, actual crimes?
SAY IT AIN'T SO
I'm not sure theft of an ipad is really a "crime".. more like a "favor" in my opinion.
I'm no law technician, but sitcom knowledge tells me it'll probably now be evidence in an extremely lengthly legal case, and will be returned to the original owner later in the decade.
Meth is a bad, bad drug.
http://www.rxlist.com/desoxyn-drug.htm
Palm trees and 8
I'm not sure theft of an ipad is really a "crime".. more like a "favor" in my opinion.
No no, it is a crime. The damned Apple device sells like hot potatoes on eBay. Its theft represents big bucks lost !
Write boring code, not shiny code!
This is so true. I live near a major highway and hear all the time about major drug busts that occurred because less-than-intelligent traffickers got pulled over because of something stupid like speeding. They never seem to learn. If you're going to haul a metric shitload of dope across the country, make sure all your lights work and stay close to the speed limit!
Sure they call em Apples but it is really a Gateway drug,
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
More to the point that Police should really put more effort into solving the small crimes. As it could lead them to going to the big ones.
Usually when someone is doing a big crime they will try very hard to cover up all their tracks. When they do a small one or probably more to the case someone else who is doing the small crime will make more mistakes. What probably happened was some dude who needed money for meth stole the iPad and then traded it for Meth to the dealer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And they found some meth as well.
Have gnu, will travel.
Only if that demand is perfectly inelastic. In a more accurate model, the change in the price in turn changes demand: If meth costs more, fewer people will start using it.
This would be funny if it was lost in the owners own apartment.
Peolple who start using it is an increase to demand. The issue is what are the current users going to do if the price goes up. The addiction is strong enough that the "elastic demand-to-price" assumption is likely unreasonable. Addicts will find a way to pay the higher price, also note that this is a drug for which one can developa chemical dependency with one use. It breaks most of the economic models which were developed to study things like Sugar. It is much closer to the models that were developed to study Oil.
Nope, RTFA, this is crystal meth.
I've been diagnosed with ADHD for the past 12 years or so. For the last 6, I've gone untreated. As an illustration of how screwed-up my body chemistry is, consider that I drink 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily at work, primarily to reduce the jumpy focus. A short while (30-60 minutes) after my first cup, focusing on a single idea becomes much easier. I'll drink more to maintain that focus through the day. In the late afternoon, I'll sometimes switch to caffeinated soft drinks, mostly for taste. In the evenings, I'll have another caffeinated soft drink, to relax me for sleep. I'll often be happily unconscious by 11.
ADHD is weird. Stimulants (like caffeine and more potent drugs like methamphetamine) even out the brain chemistry, making people like me closer to normal. For myself, I spent much of my time in college training myself to focus, so the slight assistance of caffeine is all I usually need, but I'm a pretty mild case now. It doesn't surprise me at all that some people are prescribed methamphetamines to slow down.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
So? Crystal meth is an express elevator to hell. Humanity would have been better served if it never existed. I'm expressing my depression that it even exists.
"Well, it IS white, overpriced, pushed heavily by dealers, and addictive to the point where criminal activity starts over it. But it weighs more than an iPad. Easy to get confused, boys. Let's head back to the station."
Crystal meth is Methamphetamine (pure, in a crystalline form).
Desoxyn is also Methamphetamine ((S)-N,-dimethylbenzeneethanamine hydrochloride).
No essential difference (apart from dose).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine
Often local police don't pursue small crimes like theft. They don't fingerprint cars that have stolen radios, or follow-up when you report your cell phone stolen (despite the fact that it probably broadcasts a GUID and is GPS trackable with a warrant).
However, going after small crimes can be a way to go after big crimes. Somebody who has stolen an iPad could very well be into some other crime, and when you walk into their house anything in plain sight is fair game. Plus there is the whole bit about nipping problems in the bud - the teenager stealing radios today could be trading in guns in a few years.
Sure, fingerprinting the car with a stolen radio costs more than replacing the radio, but the goal isn't to replace the radio - it is to deter real crime, and send the message that stealing is going to get you in trouble.
My sister has ADHD. When she was younger (under 12) we used to have to give her hot chocolate or even mochas before bed in order for her to fall asleep. You get some weird looks from people when you say that ("You give her caffeine so she can sleep?"). But it works.
It's strange how you have to give someone stimulants in order for the body to catch up to the brain, thus evening things out and allowing them to concentrate and "be normal".
She's now on Dexedrin and , both amphetamines, both stimulants, both used to relax/calm her down enough to get on with her day.
Yeah, ADHD is a weird chemical imbalance.
They sell hot potatoes on eBay? How do they stay hot until I get them? They must have some super high efficiency insulation to wrap them in!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Except that it takes years of heavy drinking to start turning your insides into mush (mainly liver/kidneys, which are easily repairable), and only a few months of heavy meth use to turn your brain into mush (which is extremely hard to repair).
Alcoholism tends to grow slowly over time. Meth addiction tends to go from nothing to "holy shit, the bat people are everywhere man, you gotta protect me" in no time flat. Especially if you start smoking it.
And if you quit drinking, your body can recupurate and recover from most of the damage. If you quit meth after years of hardcore use, your body is still messed up.
Alcohol is bad. But meth is 1000s of times worse.
If you're going to haul a metric shitload of dope across the country, make sure all your lights work and stay close to the speed limit!
And make sure you don't get stuck in a tunnel!
.
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
I'm sure that happens. But, I've refused to allow cops to search my vehicles, and so has my son. When I have refused, they threatened to bring a dog out to sniff my vehicle. The last time my son refused, they actually brought a dog out. The dog walked around the car three times, without alerting. The cop had the dog to "Sit" beside the driver's door, dog looked around for a few seconds, then slobbered on the door. "Ha, he's found something! That's what he does when he's alerting us!"
Bunch of losers found nothing of course - all they did was to waste their time, and the kid's time.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Well we are assuming the dealer wasn't also an idiot who would risk $35M worth of drugs for an electronic device you can get brand new for $500, $800 tops with all the options. At this point we don't know the details of who stole the iPad and everyone is speculating. But what is known is that the police asked to be let in the apartment without a warrant. And the tenants agreed even though they had 750 lbs of meth "lying around". The article makes it sound that the drugs were in plain sight.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
My elderly mother has an iPad, the best that has happened to her in a long while. She uses Skype on it to keep in touch with relatives in other cities, keeps all her photos on it, and plays games on it when idle. Stealing it from her wouldn't be just a crime, it would be downright cruel.
You think you're being funny, but for every show-off and zealot that waves their iPad around as a sign of their superiority, there's another human being who quietly makes good proper use of it.
They sell hot potatoes on eBay? How do they stay hot until I get them?
With Nathalie Portman!
*realizes* Damn. Grits. It's hot grits, not potatoes...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Lets see I'll have that big bag of Meth over there, and here is the agreed price of a Million Dollars and an IPad.
It's not what your Sig can do for you, but what you can do for your for your Sig.
Ahahahahahahahaha!
I'm "parroting" experience, not "the powers that be".
And I never said anything about the legality of alcohol. Just a comparison on the effects of alcohol/meth on the body. And the effects of meth, especially on the brain, are a hell of a lot worse than alcohol.
750 pounds is 35 million dollars? Has the value of the dollar against the pound slipped again?
I live near a major highway and hear all the time about major drug busts that occurred because less-than-intelligent traffickers got pulled over because of something stupid like speeding.
In the majority of those cases, the officer (or his intel) knew that there was a high probability that the vehicle was hauling drugs. Fortunately, police cannot pull you over based on the intel alone. They have to find a reason to pull you over. Fortunate for the cops, it's absolutely impossible for a human to drive anywhere without committing a violation. Example: The un-posted speed limit of Seattle is 25mph. If you turn onto a 35mph roadway, you can only drive 25mph until you are in view of a 35mph sigh, even if you have prior knowledge that the speed limit is 35. I've seen cases where a van (carrying drugs) was pulled over because their tinted windows were too tinted... At 11PM. On a highway. By four squad cards.
Once they have the car pulled over, they are entitled to a plain sight search. They will also try to compel/coerce the driver into consenting to a search. If the driver does not fall to their interrogation, they can release the hounds as a means to circumvent the 5th amendment.
It's an interesting game.
Methamphetamine ((S)-N,-diMethylbenzeneethanamine hydrochloride)
Hah! Really cleverly hidden, dear Apple, but you won't be able to talk your way out of it this time, not with this and the iPad as evidence!
Ezekiel 23:20
No references, I'm afraid, but I do know a few things that definitely helped.
Firstly, I've benefited most from meditation. I spent many years taking dance lessons (every programmer needs a backup career), and at one point worked with an instructor who touted the benefits of meditation. Her technique was to lie on the floor, and focus on relaxing one muscle group at a time, working from the toes to the face, with the idea being that you develop awareness of the separate muscles, and the ability to control them independently. While the benefits to my agility are questionable, I did develop the ability to cure my own hiccups on demand (a minor superpower) and more importantly to clear my mind. I've since also found connections to Buddhist and Zen meditation, where the subject simply sits idly while the world (and thoughts) pass in and out of mind with no concern.
Second and opposite was my tendency to completely overrun myself with tasks. At specific times (generally dictated by the poor judgement of a college student) I'd allow my workload to pile up until I had far too many things to do at once. I'd choose the one most centrally related to the others, and work on it. While my conscious effort went to the task at hand, I'd try to accept the interruptions of thoughts related to the other projects. Perhaps while working on a program, I'd suddenly think of how an algorithm should work for a different program. When writing a paper, I might figure out the perfect conclusion to a different paper. Those ideas would be written down (in whatever notation I could devise that makes sense - including at one point a diagram that looked like two skyscrapers with a tightrope between them, detailing a sorting algorithm). Then'd I'd go back to the main project, and remain there until it was done. I'd pick the project with the most new ideas, and continue with that.
Alternating between the two, I could satisfy my innate need to multitask, yet still maintain some small amount of sanity. A steady supply of Mountain Dew gave the slight chemical boost, and I soon got used to the feeling of controlling my focus. It's still difficult, and I still think the absurd thoughts (such as contemplating my favorite style and curvature for a handwritten 'L', or whether an elephant would be in pain if its tusks grew to curve backwards and twisted together over its back), but I can control them if I try.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Well we are assuming the dealer wasn't also an idiot who would risk $35M worth of drugs for an electronic device you can get brand new for $500, $800 tops with all the options.
Don't bet against the stupidity of criminals. From the FBI report on the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing:
In the rubble investigators uncovered a vehicle identification number on a piece of wreckage that seemed suspiciously obliterated. A search of our crime records returned a match: the number belonged to a rented van reported stolen the day before the attack. An Islamic fundamentalist named Mohammad Salameh had rented the vehicle, we learned, and on March 4, an FBI SWAT team arrested him as he tried in vain to get his $400 deposit back.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Small crimes ... like speeding?
It's a popular theory that speed traps and other traffic stops are only used to generate cash for the police department. While this is true to some extent, it's also a rather effective method for the police to catch people involved in more significant crimes. Run the plates, check for arrest warrants, and so forth.
Ever heard of Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy, or Dennis Rader? All caught during routine traffic stops.
In truth, a lot of those coincidental pull-overs that result in big drug bust are due to the work of informants and other surveillance. The bust is executed as a routing traffic stop in order to protect the method the police used to learn about the drug operation. This is in order to continue to use that method against the same organization or to protect the life of an informant.
In the case of this iPad, it's very possible that it was planted there by an informant at the request of the police in order to cover the real tracks that led them to the drug cache.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!