Don't lose your Sprint phone in LV, NV.

[zuben el genub]

If you lose your cellphone, don't blame Wayne Dobson - News - ReviewJournal.com

I would be totally whizzed off.

 

[MoodyBlues]

If you lose your cellphone, don't blame Wayne Dobson - News - ReviewJournal.com

I would be totally whizzed off.

No kidding. And--other than moving--what can he do?

 

[Gmash]

That's crazy. Poor guy.

 

[dan330]

That does suck

 

[breadnatty08]

This has been going on for "years" and Sprint is still "looking into the problem"?!?!
Wow. Hate to say it, but Dobson should start looking for a lawyer.

 

[Speed Daemon]

No kidding. And--other than moving--what can he do?

He can keep detailed records of every incident, and hire a lawyer to sue all involved parties every time it happens. Before long he'd win enough money to be able to move to a nicer place than North Las Vegas.

I admire him for being so nice about it all, but if he doesn't take measures to stop it, it's only a matter of time before he'll get beaten, shot or worse. He really needs to defend himself.

 

[MoodyBlues]

He can keep detailed records of every incident, and hire a lawyer to sue all involved parties every time it happens.

But who are "the involved parties" you're referring to? Not the individuals, since they're not doing anything wrong. Ditto for the police. With both, they're just following the information they're getting from Sprint, information that they believe to be correct. So, to me, it seems to boil down to Sprint and only Sprint, right?

I admire him for being so nice about it all, but if he doesn't take measures to stop it, it's only a matter of time before he'll get beaten, shot or worse. He really needs to defend himself.

Exactly. Honestly, I'm surprised it HASN'T come to violence already. Until Sprint solves this little problem, he ought to sue them for 24/7 security at his property--I mean like ARMED security, not just an alarm system.

 

[unnamedny]

interesting glich, but poor guy. would be cool to have a morgue at that location
"hello, we received a call regarding the domestic.... ohh nevermind"

 

[ss2man44]

I can't imagine the type of bug that would cause something like that from a programmatic point of view. What service within Sprint is directing all these people to the guy's house?

 

[Speed Daemon]

But who are "the involved parties" you're referring to? Not the individuals, since they're not doing anything wrong. Ditto for the police.

The last time I checked, trespassing and disturbing the peace are criminal offenses. I'd say that committing a crime is doing something wrong! Even the cops aren't above the law.

While most of us can live our whole lives in blissful ignorance of it, police agencies do keep computerized records about just about everything, but especially 911 calls. They can be excused for the first time they overreact to an unfounded domestic violence call. But after that they alone are responsible for remembering that this guy's house isn't the place where the calls originated. If they don't, then suing them is a reasonable way to get relief from having that become a regular thing, and (God forbid) escalating to something worse.

With both, they're just following the information they're getting from Sprint, information that they believe to be correct. So, to me, it seems to boil down to Sprint and only Sprint, right?

"I'm just following orders" has never been an acceptable excuse for doing something wrong. The same goes for ignorance.

The civilians who decide to take the law into their own hands and terrorize an innocent person in the middle of the night aren't using good judgment, and are culpable for those actions. The City of North Las Vegas has a responsibility to interpret tracking data responsibly, and not use GPS as a crutch. They're supposed to know the difference between using GPS and the less precise triangulation, and take that into account when making decisions. They're supposed to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them. Above all, they're supposed to live by the Constitution's directive of presumed innocence. When they don't do this, they are indeed culpable.

Honestly, I'm surprised it HASN'T come to violence already. Until Sprint solves this little problem, he ought to sue them for 24/7 security at his property--I mean like ARMED security, not just an alarm system.

I don't know what the best security solution for this man is, but since no security company is going to go up against an entire police force, the first thing that must be done is to get the North Las Vegas Police to change their behavior so that they stop treating everything they read on the Internet as the God's honest truth and start taking exceptional measures to protect this man and his home. One great place to start is by declaring his property a "no-go zone" that they're not allowed to enter without his express permission.

I strongly disagree with the decision to allow cellular 911 call centers to be unregulated, profit-making businesses. IMHO every 911 call should be handled by a bona fide emergency service agency of government from beginning to end. When the money-making call centers give false information to the police, they should suffer the same criminal and civil penalties that other people do.

I don't know if Sprint runs their own 911 call centers, or contracts them out. The answer to that influences how culpable Sprint is in this debacle. IMHO this rush to make Sprint the convenient scapegoat isn't fair to anyone.

The bottom line here is that it shouldn't take a court order for the City of North Las Vegas to make the necessary changes to protect one of their citizens.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I can't imagine the type of bug that would cause something like that from a programmatic point of view. What service within Sprint is directing all these people to the guy's house?

Probably Google Maps. I don't know how many "lost phone" apps there are, but I'd bet that none of them use their own geolocation engine.

 

[unnamedny]

I'm pretty sure he cpuld sue Sprint for this. Bug is not an excuse for sending someone at the wrong address in order to find their cellphone. He can actually sue every single person who stepped on his property. No one has right to step on your property and demand their stuff back.

He seems like a very nice guy for dealing with all that crap.

 

[MoodyBlues]

But who are "the involved parties" you're referring to? Not the individuals, since they're not doing anything wrong. Ditto for the police.

The last time I checked, trespassing and disturbing the peace are criminal offenses. I'd say that committing a crime is doing something wrong! Even the cops aren't above the law.

I wasn't verbose enough. I meant the people who show up and knock on his front door because that's where Sprint directed them for their lost phone. THEY don't know about this glitch. They're just going to the place shown to them as the location of their phone. As for the police, they're now flagging anything involving his address, so at least they're doing something now that they're aware of the problem.

With both, they're just following the information they're getting from Sprint, information that they believe to be correct. So, to me, it seems to boil down to Sprint and only Sprint, right?

"I'm just following orders" has never been an acceptable excuse for doing something wrong. The same goes for ignorance.

So if you lost your phone and your carrier said it's at XYZ location...I don't know, do you have a crystal ball or something? I don't. Without the knowledge I now have about this glitch, I wouldn't have given any thought to the idea that the info might be incorrect. It's not a matter of ignorance, it's a matter of expecting data like that to be correct.

The civilians who decide to take the law into their own hands and terrorize an innocent person in the middle of the night aren't using good judgment, and are culpable for those actions. The City of North Las Vegas has a responsibility to interpret tracking data responsibly, and not use GPS as a crutch. They're supposed to know the difference between using GPS and the less precise triangulation, and take that into account when making decisions. They're supposed to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them. Above all, they're supposed to live by the Constitution's directive of presumed innocence. When they don't do this, they are indeed culpable.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Honestly, I'm surprised it HASN'T come to violence already. Until Sprint solves this little problem, he ought to sue them for 24/7 security at his property--I mean like ARMED security, not just an alarm system.

I don't know what the best security solution for this man is, but since no security company is going to go up against an entire police force

But armed security WOULD be able to deal with individuals coming to his property, and it's the irate individuals who pose a threat to his safety.