BMW traps alleged thief by remotely locking him in car
BMW traps alleged thief by remotely locking him in car
Stealer's Wheel? Seattle police department quotes
"Watchmen" movie in a recap of the recent arrest.
Tech Culture
by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper December 4, 2016 5:00 PM PST
It's maybe the most satisfying arrest we can imagine.
Seattle police caught an alleged car thief by enlisting
the help of car maker BMW to both track and then remotely lock the luckless
criminal in the very car he was trying to steal.
Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, deputy director of communications
for the Seattle Police Department, posted a witty summary of the event on the
SPD's blog on Wednesday. Turns out if you're inside a stolen car, it's perhaps
not the best time to take a nap.
"A car thief awoke from a sound slumber Sunday
morning (Nov. 27) to find he had been remotely locked inside a stolen BMW, just
as Seattle police officers were bearing down on him," Spangenthal-Lee
wrote. The suspect found a key fob mistakenly left inside the BMW by a friend
who'd borrowed the car from the owner and the alleged crime was on.
But technology triumphed. When the owner, who'd just
gotten married a day earlier, discovered the theft, the police contacted BMW
corporate, who tracked the car to Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood. The car was
parked, still running, with the snoozing suspect fast asleep behind the wheel.
"BMW employees were able to remotely lock the car's
doors, trapping the suspect inside, presumably while hissing something
terrifying like 'I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with
me' into the car's sound system," Spangenthal-Lee wrote. (Yes, that's a
line from "Watchmen.")
The 38-year-old suspect, who was carrying a small amount
of methamphetamine, was booked into the King County Jail for auto theft and
drug possession, police said.
That's a pretty entertainingly written item for a cop
blotter, and it's not the first time Seattle PD has strived to make their
police reports entertaining. In 2012, Spangenthal-Lee made headlines with
"Marijawhatnow?", a guide to legal pot use in the city.
Comments
Post a Comment