A 77-year-old grandmother opened her door to a SWAT team earlier this year because they thought that a stolen truck and guns were being hidden in her garage. They thought that solely because someone had used Apple's Find My network to locate it. But there was a problem.
That problem was the big blue circle that was shown on the Find My app, highlighting that it wasn't sure exactly where the truck was because a firm location wasn't available. But that didn't stop a police officer from getting a search warrant and letting a SWAT team lose on the woman.
Faulty info
Ars Technica reports that Ruby Johnson's home became a point of interest because of a stolen truck with an iPhone and guns inside. The truck's owner had used the Find My service to locate where they thought their iPhone must be, driving around in a rental car to try and pin things down. Johnson's garage was fingered as the likely storage place.
However, the police officer in charge of the case either didn't understand, or didn't care, that the Find My location was in a large blue circle because that location wasn't confirmed, likely due to a poor GPS fix. That meant that "the blue circle covered an area spanning at least six different properties and parts of four different blocks” according to a complaint filed last week. Johnson is suing the Denver Police Department (DPD) over the incident.
After receiving a search warrant and SWAT team, police entered Johnson's home, broke items, and even poked holes in her ceiling to search for items that simply weren't there.
“DPD is working with the Denver District Attorney’s office to develop additional training for officers and assistant district attorneys related to seeking warrants based upon Find My phone applications,” a DPD spokesperson told Ars Technica.
The Find My network is one of the best iPhone, iPad, and Mac tools available to people who lose their devices, but its limitations are apparent in situations like this. The truck was likely in that blue circle somewhere at some point. Unfortunately for one 77-year-old woman, so was she.
