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We’ve heard quite a few happy-ending tales of how people have gotten their thieved gadgets back. Yes, you might be able to track your stolen phone with Find My Whatever, but remember you’re not Liam Neeson. Let this be a lesson for you: criminals are dangerous, and confronting them is certainly not a good idea, without the police at least.
The poor chap in the video above is Kenneth Schmidgall, who used Find My iPhone to track down his stolen phone to a bloke riding a bike in a San Diego national reserve. Confronting the man didn’t quite go the way he thought it would, as the guy and apparently one other, decided to try and flee then beat the shit out of him.
It wasn’t until someone broke-out the pepper spray, and an off-duty policeman arrived, did the brawl calm down. But as you can see in the video (“somebody’s bleeding”), several blows to the face later, apparently with a rock, Schmidgall came off just as badly as the crim, minus the profuse projections caused by mace to the face, of course.
Remember folks, as we’ve said before, people who steal your shit are violent scumbag, bottom-feeders, and they don’t give two hoots about you. So, unless you’re built like a tank with several black belts to your name, or you have your own personal army, don’t approach crims without the backing of the rozzers. It’s just not worth it. [YouTube via ABC via Huffington Post]
Hat tip to Hyperstate, here’s the full video:
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Did they use his phone to video the beating. as that would just be adding insult to injury?
LOL, sounds a bit like one of those episodes from Family Guy.
Looks to me like he only took a couple of cracks, I’d say the thief definitely came off worse in that altercation!
Looks like the owner or a friend of his brought pepper spray with them. So the moral of the story is bring a weapon.
Sam, is this story the wrong way round?
Yeh I’m pretty sure this is the wrong way round. As far as I could tell, they guy on the ground was the thief and he certainly did not come out ok.
Small guy, with snot streaming is the thief (alleged).
I think that’s wrong, its the two guys tracked the iPhone to the 1 guy, he gets beaten up and pepper sprayed, then the off duty cop restrains the guy who stole the phone
it seems that the little guy was the thief. im confused. if you are that small and weedy then dont knick stuff!
or, don’t do it regardless of size
but especially if you are a weedy shit!
over many are as they are emaciated smack heads. 2 reasons for them not having many teeth. at least they dont feel the pain so much
Yep, agree with above, it appears that the guy who came off worst is the thief, and he was the one being restrained by the off duty officer.
More fact checking please!
He just got pepper sprayed, Schmidgall apparently took a rock to the face. Mind you, he does look a tad bigger than the perp.
Mind you, I’ve never been pepper sprayed, so I’m only assuming a rock to the face is worse.
Dunno, having had both, I’d say pretty equal!
You and I. Different worlds :S
Neither were in the line of breaking the law I’d better add!
one was a school injury from a thrown rock, the other was part of a training session
At what part of the video? It seems I missed it, enven though I re-watched the video to be sure.
Right at the beginning, basically the cameraman was useless, but in the news report he mentions it.
What I want to see is the seven minutes on tape the bloke apparently has.
You can see the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOWGEArhKU8
Hilarious denim shorts notwithstanding, this is what I like to think goes down when Giz UK members meet up.
What? Mace, phones and drunken brawls?
Add a bucket of KFC and a pizza and I think that would pretty much be it!
Sounds like a riot.
Count me in!
Shame there is no backing from the police in the UK. A month ago someone snuck up on me and bottled me knocking me unconscious and stole my 4 day old phone. The idiot could not get past my pin lock screen but somehow managed to take 2 photos of his face clear as day which then automatically uploaded to my skydrive with geotagging data. I have given the photo of his face AND exact address to the police who have subsequently told me there is nothing they can do and the case will be closed.
get a group of mates to pay a visit?
Call the police, tell them you are inside the guy’s house and just knocked him unconscious. They’ll be there breaking the door down in five minutes!
or you went around and were threatened with a gun. you are being fobbed off bigtime. dont accept that
I have been told outright by the police that THEY choose what crimes to pursue, as a victim you have NO RIGHT to demand action be taken no matter what your evidence.
I had my car stolen, knew who by and where it was, the police refused to take action. I got mugged by two guys in the street, police arrive on scene, but instead of chasing the two criminals they put me in the car and take me to the station to write a statement. They keep me locked up for 3 hours and never catch the guys who easily walked off.
I have no faith in the Police in the UK to do ANYTHING right.
Oh, they are good at giving out parking tickets and millions of other motoring “offences” quicker than you can blink though.
Well Mr. OhMyGodICantBelieveItsNotButter, it might come as a surprise to most of the people around UK but no police force in the world was created to protect “the people”. The existence of such forces is older than democracy (or whatever one calls it’s own country government system), going back to despotic kings in the case of Europe. Also the normal citizen have never been their boss (not even a stockholder).
This often works. Tell them the worst’ tell them you think you killed him, and when the whole police force turns up they will say ‘I thought you said you killed him’, you reply ‘I was mistaken, I thought you said no officers were free and the case was fucking closed?, I guess we all make mistakes.’
This post has got to be the worst pieces of advice ive seen on here. How about tell the police you have killed his family and sent them to him in small pieces ready to cook and feed to him as you have tied up in his house……… And you killed JFK
Pretty sure this will see you fined for misleading the emergency services and “wasting their time” as they will put it.
If they fine you then you obviously couldn’t have wasted their time, and therefore deserve a refund. So what you are saying is if you call the police and report someone being dead then make sure they are really dead otherwise you may face a small fine?! But I believe if you say that ‘you think’ something then it isn’t a statement, but a musing of an unsound mind, open to translation – I sensed I killed him with my ill wishes.
I see your point, but in the event of the police deciding to fine you I don’t see it as a matter of right or wrong but rather a matter of who has more power.
Snot rocket!
12:20 – hilarious haha! He basically says “Can you let me know if this little crack monkey has a disease?” Hahah