<story><title>Carpenter&apos;s AirTags help uncover &apos;massive&apos; case of stolen tools in Maryland</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/31/police-theft-thousands-power-tools/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ToucanLoucan</author><text>The roots of police departments are the paid security forces of business owners, and their values as organizations reflect this. Business owners worked with local governments to create police departments to socialize some of the cost of securing their private property; their rented homes, their warehouses, their stores. And they reflect this to this day.&lt;p&gt;Individual property crime doesn&amp;#x27;t mean shit. A criminal can sell &lt;i&gt;your&lt;/i&gt; Macbook if they like, but if they steal from Apple itself? Oh man there will be hell to pay.</text></item><item><author>FireBeyond</author><text>Yeah, I pointed the police to someone who was selling fifty plus obviously stolen MacBooks and iPhones, including mine (all described as &amp;quot;locked&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;no charger, no accessories&amp;quot;, etc., etc.) and the could not possibly care less.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;He probably was not the one who stole them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Isn&amp;#x27;t it still a crime to sell stolen goods?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Shrug.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>tamimio</author><text>My guess is the carpenter knows someone that knows someone in the police department that they actually did something, but in a normal situation, definitely they won’t bother.</text></item><item><author>rdtsc</author><text>&amp;gt; He called police, who got a search warrant&lt;p&gt;Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It&amp;#x27;s definitely a local thing. I&amp;#x27;d expect the police to shrug, and say it&amp;#x27;s too bad, just file a report to use for insurance.&lt;p&gt;I remember people saying &amp;quot;so what if you have tags, police won&amp;#x27;t do anything and you shouldn&amp;#x27;t be confronting thieves anyway&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as an anti-theft device. The word &amp;quot;theft&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#x27;t appear even once on &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apple.com&amp;#x2F;airtag&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apple.com&amp;#x2F;airtag&lt;/a&gt;. It would be interesting if they still released a puff piece as a response: &amp;quot;Oh look, a carpenter `found` his tools in the next state, in a warehouse along with other tools. We don&amp;#x27;t know how they ended up there, but isn&amp;#x27;t that great?&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jjmarr</author><text>A common good like security should be socialized because the alternative is multiple independent groups enforcing property rights, and when they start to conflict, you get a civil war won by the person who spent the most on security.&lt;p&gt;The idea that police are inherently corrupt because they developed from paid security forces ignores that the very process of development is what enshrined the rule of law over power.</text></comment>
<story><title>Carpenter&apos;s AirTags help uncover &apos;massive&apos; case of stolen tools in Maryland</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/31/police-theft-thousands-power-tools/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ToucanLoucan</author><text>The roots of police departments are the paid security forces of business owners, and their values as organizations reflect this. Business owners worked with local governments to create police departments to socialize some of the cost of securing their private property; their rented homes, their warehouses, their stores. And they reflect this to this day.&lt;p&gt;Individual property crime doesn&amp;#x27;t mean shit. A criminal can sell &lt;i&gt;your&lt;/i&gt; Macbook if they like, but if they steal from Apple itself? Oh man there will be hell to pay.</text></item><item><author>FireBeyond</author><text>Yeah, I pointed the police to someone who was selling fifty plus obviously stolen MacBooks and iPhones, including mine (all described as &amp;quot;locked&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;no charger, no accessories&amp;quot;, etc., etc.) and the could not possibly care less.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;He probably was not the one who stole them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Isn&amp;#x27;t it still a crime to sell stolen goods?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Shrug.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>tamimio</author><text>My guess is the carpenter knows someone that knows someone in the police department that they actually did something, but in a normal situation, definitely they won’t bother.</text></item><item><author>rdtsc</author><text>&amp;gt; He called police, who got a search warrant&lt;p&gt;Kind of sad, that I was surprised they did that. It&amp;#x27;s definitely a local thing. I&amp;#x27;d expect the police to shrug, and say it&amp;#x27;s too bad, just file a report to use for insurance.&lt;p&gt;I remember people saying &amp;quot;so what if you have tags, police won&amp;#x27;t do anything and you shouldn&amp;#x27;t be confronting thieves anyway&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Apple, on the other hand, is also explicit about tags not to be used as an anti-theft device. The word &amp;quot;theft&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#x27;t appear even once on &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apple.com&amp;#x2F;airtag&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apple.com&amp;#x2F;airtag&lt;/a&gt;. It would be interesting if they still released a puff piece as a response: &amp;quot;Oh look, a carpenter `found` his tools in the next state, in a warehouse along with other tools. We don&amp;#x27;t know how they ended up there, but isn&amp;#x27;t that great?&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>defen</author><text>&amp;gt; A criminal can sell your Macbook if they like, but if they steal from Apple itself? Oh man there will be hell to pay.&lt;p&gt;Where do you get the idea that there will be &amp;quot;hell to pay&amp;quot; if you steal from Apple itself? People regularly run out of Apple stores with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and never get caught.</text></comment>