Man arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot iPhone

We all express frustration with our electronica in different ways.

Some shout at Comcast cable boxes that refuse to delete recorded shows, leaving no room for new ones.

Others smack their microwaves when, commanded to heat some old spaghetti bolognese, they get stuck with 45 seconds to go.

But few are those who threaten to blast their gadget and actually mean it.

Which makes one wonder what thoughts might have been brewing at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple store in Cincinnati on Thursday.

According to WCPO9 (which is a Cincinnati TV station rather than C-3PO's illicit lover), Donald Goodrich, 38, wafted into this very Apple store. His cup appears not to have been overflowing with joy for his iPhone.

This is not, to my knowledge, an iPhone that was already shot.

(Credit: CC Johan Larsson/Flickr)

Court papers do not seem to be specific as to what element might have been malfunctioning on his 115.5mm-long gadget. However, they do allege that Goodrich told an Apple store employee that he was "so mad, I could pop a 9mm at it."

I am not sure how many people are so intimidated by the Apple store's graphic perfection and preternatural youthfulness that they actually take an extra 9mm with them.

However, the allegation is not merely that Goodrich told the employee that he would, indeed, blast his iPhone. For he is accused of revealing that he happened to have the perfect little weapon behind the right side of his shirt. (Strangely, it was a black shirt.)

You will perhaps experience a sense of stunned discomfort when I tell you that Goodrich has, indeed, been charged with aggravated menacing and causing fear of harm to an Apple employee.

Oh, as well as something of a concealed weapons violation. You see, he had a concealed weapons permit, but omitted to mention to the arresting deputy that he actually had the gun on his person, according to WCPO9. A frustrating iPhone can sometimes affect one's memory.

If your iPhone is causing you difficulties, don't smoke it, stroke it. Or take it to an Apple store where a genius will offer counseling.

Taking a gun to a gadget is like taking a blow-up doll to a dinner party. It doesn't reflect well on you at all.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

why would anybody do such a thing :)

[slickuser]

he must be steve BALLmer's cousin...

[solicitehere]

i, iSmashed my iPhone in front of an Apple store with my iHammer to prove a point to them that their product sucks and I wanted a refund, but then turned away, as usual by Apple. If I wanted to play games, I'd by a psp or ds or something with real games on it. The original iPhone was a terrible business smartphone and hasn't improved much.

So to answer your question Gold_Storm_Macboy,, I would.

[ckh1272]

@solicitehere--And that is why people like you and him need serious help.

[Police_States_of_America]

^ ^ ^ see user name

[ckh1272]

Your point??

[02cfranklin]

I would shoot every iPhone I saw if I could :D

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

whoa, someone call the police.

[cvaldes1831]

Go right ahead. That would get you thrown in jail real quick, something that you rightfully deserve for trolling.

[solicitehere]

anyone who accuses others of trolling, is trolling. Stop it.

[cvaldes1831]

@solicitehere:

Sorry, you are wrong.

[Dalkorian]

by solicitehere October 3, 2009 6:45 PM PDT
anyone who accuses others of trolling, is trolling.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOL.

(Yourself included??)

So, that explains the missing piece on the side of the Apple logo!!!

[zmjman08]

+1

[solicitehere]

+1

[vaporland]

+2!

:-)

Can you imagine what the new Microsoft stores are going to be facing?

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

it wont be pretty.

[solicitehere]

Organized behavior from happy customers. Oh, and they'll be able to find a place to buy MS stuff. Nice. Apple has no such luck.

[ckh1272]

@solicitehere--And once again, you have no clue. Care to provide personal experience in regards to Apple instead of making blanket assumptions as usual??

[Dalkorian]

ckh1272, don't encourage it.

[setjeff15081947]

Yes, I can.
"Can you say 'Town-Hall-Meeting'? I knew you could."

[sebastien.kalonji]

You really have to be a nutcase to not like the iPhone.

[dcase99]

surely you jest

[richard993]

I've got a list of things that I don't like on the iPhone... no camera flash and only 3MP, low screen resolution and TFT not OLED, slow processor, no card slot, can't change the battery, doesn't handle multi-tasking, and no radio (because Apple wants everyone to use iTunes).
Other smart phones blow away the iPhone hardware, but fail when it comes to software. So really the iPhone is only popular because it has great software.

[solicitehere]

I like productivity, not a loss of it.

[pentest]

No OLED is a good feature. Who wants a screen that washes out and uses more energy under light and doesn't last as long?

[sartor1]

C'mon, aside from the supposed/alleged crappy service from AT&T, it's a GREAT gadget! Nothing really comes even close to it..

[rollcage]

Except for the Pre. I'm just can't believe the iPhone doesn't have multitasking yet. Push works ok for some things, but for others you really just need the ability to run two or more apps at the same time.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

it does have basic multi-tasking and push not. but not full fledged multi-tasking like the Pre. Apple believes it hampers battery life and performance. we have seen that from the pre (especially battery).

[Perry_Clease]

"Except for the Pre. "

Can you make a phone call and surf the web at the same time?

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

@Perry
you can with the iPhone.

[solicitehere]

iPhone = frustration for a lot of my business colleagues. But then they can play games on it and it's all good after that, until they have to use it for something productive. Yes, cycling between word processing, email, internet and contacts is tough to do on an iPhone, oh wait, impossible without closing and reopening everything over and over again, and then having to shut all of them down to answer a frickin call.

Apple will always close the environment on their products so the work well enough for the average users out there. If they step outside their boxes, it all comes crumbling down.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

@solicite
you can be on a phone call and do other things at the same time as the call is on speakerphone.but of course you wouldn't know that.

[cvaldes1831]

@solicitehere:

"impossible without closing and reopening everything over and over again, and then having to shut all of them down to answer a frickin call."

Boom, and there goes your credibility.

You are dead wrong.

Game over, thanks for playing.

[solicitehere]

Remember like all little good Appler's, focus on the few things that work well, then skate around the issues actually focused on in a statement. It makes calls yes, please defend what was actaully in the comment. Multitasking amongst all those programs is functionally and productively impossible with an iPhone.

[Seaspray0]

But does the pre have the ifart app?

[solicitehere]

Negative, they don't. Palm owner should place an iPhone up Steve's Job's Orafice to get same effect though.

[RCHOBO]

The iPhone is a nice little gadget. They don't deserve to be shot. Their owners however are another story...

[solicitehere]

+100

[Maddy95]

Wow. I never imagined that it would be illegal to kill an iPod. He should move to Texas; he could blast away all day long at his iPod and nobody would care.

[pentest]

1. It is an iPhone
2. Brandishing a weapon in a store and making threats is illegal regardless of the gadget in question.

[Maddy95]

Wow. I never imagined that it would be illegal to kill an iPod. He should move to Texas; he could blast away all day long at his iPod and nobody would care.

[solicitehere]

Macboys and Apples store employees are identical, oversenstive to any criticism for less than usable products.

[ckh1272]

@solicitehere--How about if someone brings a gun into your place of work and starts expressing their frustration with your service or product. Still sound like fun to you?? Beware the judgmental pendulum. It does swing both ways.

[CyR00k]

If they arrested this guy for threatening to "kill" his iPhone what did they do to the guys from "Will It Blend" when they threw one in a blender? Are little iPhones now afraid of blenders? Or, worried that because they misbehaved they will be shot?

[Dalkorian]

Wow, you can't really be this dense. It's not possible, you would forget to breathe and drop dead. In case you just missed the point (maybe you're high on LSD or something), this guy brandished a gun in a store, in front of a sales person. That's a little different than throwing a device in a blender in your own kitchen, it's even different than shooting your iPhone at a gun range. It's not shooting the iPhone that's the problem here, but threatening a person. Get it yet?

[njsokalski]

The only comment I have on this story is that as crappy a product as the iPhone is, and even though any place that manufactures them should be destroyed, you do have to be pretty insane to carry around a gun and go around shooting them. So Apple, please go out of business, and all you people that are smart enough to know that Apple sucks, just try to put up with them for now.

[cvaldes1831]

This is a troll.

[solicitehere]

R U the troll police, Mr Troll.

[EvanSei]

@njsokalski
just curious are a person who owned apple products and had them catastrophically fail (it does happen) and are mad or are you one of those people who have never even touched an apple product and just likes being bias, making the world a worse off place. stop being so negative and give the products a chance.

[ckh1272]

"by solicitehere October 3, 2009 6:50 PM PDT
R U the troll police, Mr Troll."

@solicitehere--If he was, then you would probably be under arrest for multiple offenses.

[EvanSei]

All I can say is what kind of employee is that to call the police. No body would go and call the police for what this guy said (except this person) wow let the guy go, drop the charges. Well I'm off to go shoot my iPhone. (watch the FBI will be at my door)

i think it was more the fact that he had a weapon in the store... reread the article...

[artistjoh]

Surely you did not comprehend the article in its entirety. When someone displays a gun to someone, especially in a situation where it is clearly intimidation for benefit (fix my problem - I have a gun is the undertone of the conversation) causes stress and fear on the part of the person subjected to. This is not something that anyone should put up with under any circumstances. A person brandishing a weapon is dangerous.

If one of my employees faced that situation I would expect them to say things to keep the person calm but to quickly make excuses to vacate the area, raise the alarm, and call the police once their personal safety is assured. You do not take a situation like that lightly.

[EvanSei]

I reread the article and I do see now that he did have a gun on his person. He should (and was) have ben arrested, I would say that I would shoot my iPhone sarcastically but would never do it, this guy probably would right in the store!

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

its an iphone not an iPod

[solicitehere]

All the same to the rest of the world outside of the little teeny tiny Apple Sector.

[tekniklyincorrect]

Read the news much? I believe there was an article written not too long ago about how the make phone calls equally as good as an iPod

[tekniklyincorrect]

Read the news much? There was a recent article describing how they function as a phone equally as well as an iPod.

[ckh1272]

@solicitehere---a 150 million+ iPods and 30 million+ iPhones does not a small world make. Your ignorance continues to shine brightly. Thanks for playing.

[jeeves86]

Guys, the article said that the man was carrying a concealed weapon and had threatened to use it. That's what the Apple Store employee called the police for, that's why he was arrested. On top of that, he forgot to tell the arresting officer that he had one. Well, forget, or deliberately leave out are two different things, but he didn't tell the officer either way. I think if you're stupid enough to shoot a phone, you should be the type of person that 'shouldn't' have a concealed weapons permit. Or an iPhone for that matter. Shoot your phone all you want, just do it in the privacy of your own home.

[ikramerica--2008]

Considering that Apple stores have been robbed and employees shot, anyone who doesn't call the cops in a situation like that is stupid.

[iceberg020]

wat ****** bs. i dont know wat is news iphone or guy's 9mm? actually none of it.

[Sausagebiscuit]

I would have a better reply if I could understand your uneducated ramblings.

[Dalkorian]

Funny Sausagebiscuit, that's the same thing his 6th grade teacher said to him.

[Electro_Fox]

Yeah, but the blow up doll isn't going to eat the last crumpet at the table. Maybe she'll pass a little wind from time to time...

[Thermonuclear]

It's not the iPhone shooting that's bad. It's the shooting itself, and also the threat.

[Dan7637]

what a ****

[pentest]

The headline is irresponsible.

There are enough stupid people that will read the headline and think that threating an iPhone is illegal. Maybe idiots like Beck or Limbaugh will run with it and get their trailer-trash dittoheads whipped up in another storm of stupidity.

It may cause people to click on the story, but it is still irresponsible.

[ikramerica--2008]

So is your post. What do Rush or Beck have to do with this?

[Sausagebiscuit]

I think Rush has an iPhone.

[Dalkorian]

No worries, I think idiots like that *should* stand out in the crowd. That way we can avoid them and they can only hurt themselves.