crime

Teen dies trying to hold onto iPad during theft, police say

It's a natural instinct to resist if someone tries to steal something out of your hand.

In Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon, that instinct might have cost a 15-year-old boy his life.

As the Las Vegas Sun reports, Marcos Vincente Arenas was walking down the street, holding an iPad. … Read more

Track your stolen wheels with BikeSpike

You've got the quality locks, you've seen the how-to-lock videos, and you're very careful about where to leave your bicycle. But is that enough?

Not according to the backers of BikeSpike, a GPS tracking device being promoted on Kickstarter.

If a thief makes off with your ride, the BikeSpike will show its map location on your mobile device or home computer. Police can be given access to the data to help recovery. … Read more

Man allegedly cuts Internet, TV wires 'to relieve brain'

Is it all getting too much?

Is your thinking crooked, your logic frazzled, and your every wire crossed?

Perhaps it's time to go and cut yourself off from your phone and Internet. No, not metaphorically, but literally.

That was allegedly the slightly illegal thought-process of Raymond Bischoff of Hastings, Minn.

As CBS Minnesota wires it, Bischoff, 65, allegedly thought it best to cut the wires and cables that happened to connect a local business to the Internet, the phone service, and even the satellite TV because he wanted to "relieve the pressure on his brain."

Some might … Read more

Batman makes an arrest (no, really)

No one knows who Batman really is.

But when he arrests you and takes you to the police station, you know you're in trouble.

No, I haven't been reading comics or feasting on old episodes of Adam West and Burt Ward.

I've been reading the Guardian, which informs me that CCTV images released by police in West Yorkshire, England, reveal that a caped crusader marched a wanted man into a police station and handed him over to the authorities.

There is no evidence of there having been a struggle. Just as there is no evidence of a … Read more

NYPD unveils radiation scanner to catch people with illegal guns

As the U.S. gun control debate continues in full force, several authorities are looking for ways to catch people illegally possessing firearms.

The New York Police Department announced today that it will soon adopt portable scanning technology that lets police officers see from a distance whether someone is carrying a concealed weapon, according to the New York Daily News.

The scanner is a device small enough to fit in a police van or set up on a street corner that reads terahertz radiation, which is energy emitted by both humans and inanimate objects. When aimed at a person, it'… Read more

Man posts on Facebook: 'im about to get shot'; gets shot

It seems that people want to announce everything on Facebook, even their imminent demise.

30-year-old Eric L. Ramsey knew his time was up, so he took out his cell phone and posted on his Facebook wall: "Well folkes [sic] im about to get shot. Peace"

As NBC News reports, some of his friends thought he was joking.

However, shortly after his 3:15 a.m. post, he was fatally shot by a policeman.

The police were searching for Ramsey after he allegedly kidnapped and raped a woman at Central Michigan University, set a house ablaze, stole a sanitation … Read more

Prosecutor in Aaron Swartz 'hacking' case comes under fire

A politically ambitious Justice Department official who oversaw the criminal case against Aaron Swartz has come under fire for alleged prosecutorial abuses that led the 26-year-old online activist to take his own life.

Carmen Ortiz, 57, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts who was selected by President Obama, compared the online activist -- accused of downloading a large number of academic papers -- to a common criminal in a 2011 press release. "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar," Ortiz said at the time. Last fall, her office slapped Swartz with 10 additional … Read more

$1.5 million worth of iPad Mini tabs stolen from JFK

The iPad Mini has been boosted in New York, but not in a good way.

The New York Post is reporting that thieves have stolen $1.5 million worth of iPad Minis from a building at JFK airport. Police told the paper the crooks somehow gained access to the cargo storage area late Monday night and used an airport forklift to load two pallets containing about 3,600 tablets in total into a large truck.… Read more

Seattle police publicize crimes on Twitter with 'Tweets-by-beat'

Seattle residents now have the option of following the local police department on Twitter. In a first-of-a-kind program, the city's authorities are launching a new initiative that involves cops translating the news they get on the streets to tweets.

Dubbed "Tweets-by-beat," this program attempts to replace the police blotter that normally runs in local papers with a tech version of basically the same thing, according to the New York Times. When residents follow the department on the social network, they'll get routine tweets of the up-to-the-moment crime happenings in their neighborhoods.

"Liquor violation -- intoxicated … Read more