Stupid people of the week

Minneapolis police sergeant accused of using AirTag to track, harass coworker, charges say

A Minneapolis police sergeant is accused of illegally accessing a law enforcement database and then using an AirTag to track and harass a former romantic partner, who is also a coworker.

Gordon Blackey, 59, was charged in Anoka County with four misdemeanors, including harassment, unauthorized use of a tracking device and two counts of unauthorized acquisition of non-public data.

The charges state that Blackey and a fellow Minneapolis police sergeant had a brief romantic relationship last year. Since the breakup, the two had maintained a professional and friendly relationship. Then in March, the woman found an Apple AirTag in the wheel well of her car, which was linked to Blackey’s cell phone, according to the charges.

She confronted him, charges say, and Blackey said he put the AirTag in the car because he “cared about her.”

On April 30, Blackey invited her out for a drink, but she declined. Later that night while out with friends at a restaurant, she noticed Blackey sitting inside the restaurant too, which concerned her, documents say.

She reported the incidents to Minneapolis police and the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office on May 7, expressing concern for her privacy and safety.

An Anoka County Sheriff’s Office investigation revealed that no court order authorized Blackey to place the AirTag in the woman’s car, the charges say.

The investigation also showed that Blackey had accessed the database for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and taken a photo of license plate numbers. The numbers were tied to the woman’s father and coworker, charges say, and Blackey had no law enforcement purpose for looking up their information.

In an interview with an Anoka County Sheriff’s Office detective, Blackey admitted to placing the AirTag in the woman’s car and accessing private information using BCA records without legitimate law enforcement purpose, charges say.

“I am, of course, very concerned about the charges, but I’ll refrain from commenting further to maintain the integrity of the criminal legal process,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

Blackey is currently employed with the City of Minneapolis.

Source; CBS News

LPD: Revived overdose victim takes off in police unit and crashes into creek

A late Wednesday night overdose call took a chaotic turn when the suspected overdose victim, revived with Narcan, stole a police sergeant’s vehicle and crashed it into a creek, according to Laredo Police.

Officers responded to the scene at Mercer St. and N. Canada Avenue around 11:41 p.m. for an overdose call. Paramedics gave the suspect Narcan when the individual got up, fled the scene, and stole a police vehicle.

Laredo Police reported that the suspect drove the unit off a steep cliff and into a creek before abandoning the vehicle and continuing to flee on foot.

Inv. Joe Baeza, with the Laredo Police Department, explained some of the department’s protocols in these types of emergency situations. He says, “The department will always look at these cases to see if there’s some sort of a protocol, you know, were followed. I noticed that the average layman is, like, why don’t you take the keys with you? But in an emergency situation, it’s like an ambulance –you don’t turn the ambulance off. There’s computers and overhead lights and everything else that take place, and so those vehicles can’t be just turned off every time the officer stops.”

It is unknown if the suspect was found or caught after the incident. We’ll have more information as it becomes available.

Source; KGNS

LAPD raid goes from bad to farce after gun allegedly sucked onto MRI machine

I think this lawsuit might be a tad fanciful, but it makes for good news fodder.

An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department found out the hard way that you can’t take metal near an MRI machine after their rifle flew out of their hands and became attached to the machine during a pot raid gone bad, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week.

The incident’s details were described in a lawsuit filed by the owners of a Los Angeles medical imaging center, who allege that their business was wrongly targeted by LAPD during a raid in October 2023 The lawsuit was first reported on by Law360.com.

The owners of NoHo Diagnostic Center are suing the LAPD, the city of Los Angeles and multiple police officers, alleging they violated the business owners’ constitutional rights and demanding an unspecified amount in damages. Officers allegedly raided the diagnostic center, located in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, thinking it was a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility, pointing to higher-than-usual energy use and the “distinct odor” of cannabis plants, according to the lawsuit.

Officers raided the facility on Oct. 18, 2023, and detained the lone female employee while they searched the business, the lawsuit said. However, they didn’t find a single cannabis plant and only saw a typical medical facility with rooms used for conducting x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, the owners said.

The officers then released the employee and told her to call a manager, the lawsuit said, while they continued to wander around various rooms of the facility. The plaintiffs say the officers’ behavior was “nothing short of a disorganized circus, with no apparent rules, procedures, or even a hint of coordination.”

At one point, an officer walked into an MRI room, past a sign warning that metal was prohibited inside, with his rifle “dangling… in his right hand, with an unsecured strap,” the lawsuit said. The MRI machine’s magnetic force then allegedly sucked his rifle across the room, pinning it against the machine. MRI machines are tube-shaped scanners that use incredibly strong magnetic fields to create images of the brain, bones, joints and other internal organs.

An officer then allegedly pulled a sealed emergency release button that shut the MRI machine down, deactivating it, evaporating thousands of liters of helium gas and damaging the machine in the process. The officer then grabbed his rifle and left the room, leaving behind a magazine filled with bullets on the office floor, according to the lawsuit.

Los Angeles police and an attorney for the diagnostic center did not immediately return SFGATE’s requests for comment.

Source; SFGate

Category: Crime, Police, Stupid Criminals