Vigilante Justice: Internet Does Right By Jesse McPherson
It is hard to feel sorry for people some times, especially when they have problems with intelligence courses of action. Jesse McPherson was met with an unfortunate surprise after returning from SXSW. Upon his return home, he had discovered his Xbox 360, laptop and television have been relieved from his possession.
Believing that the detectives assigned to his case were going to be little help (this was simply a theft to them, after all), McPherson took matters into his own hands. Tracking the laptop down was the first step in his crusade. He managed to find a local pawn shop with a video of the assailant attempting to sell his old power book.
Knowing full well that the detectives couldn't be counted on to "search" for the stolen items I took it upon myself to call around to the local pawn shops and the very first one I called (Thanks Google Maps!) recalled a young white man who came in trying to sell a G4 Powerbook but the battery was dead and he didn't have the right charger (clue 1) so he decided not to buy it. He also noted that the screen wouldn't stay up on its own (clue 2), which is the reason it was replaced with a MBP. I immediately knew it was the laptop that was taken from my house and started asking about cameras in the store and if they would be willing to let me somehow get a picture of this guy.
Now we move on to step two. McPherson, thanks to the generous donations of his coworkers, procured a replacement 360. After some brief setup, he discovered that his live account now had a voice message waiting for him from none other than the thief in question. An MP3 is available on McPherson's weblog (linked at the bottom of this page).
Who needs a detective when you have thousands of angry citizens ready to aid your cause? McPherson's blog posts were placed on Digg, allowing these internet users to track down just about every scrap of personal information they could find on this character, including his name, address and high school.
The boy was harassed incessantly by the mob, ultimately forcing him to confess his crimes to his mother (whom was in contact with McPherson himself). His stuff was hand returned to him in person.
While I don't agree with the mob's behavior, It just shows that if you're going to commit a crime, don't be stupid about it. In fact, don't commit crime at all. I omitted the AIM logs in light of some rather adult language. Feel free to track them down on your own, they are not hard to find, but bear in mind it is very much NSFW.
WOW, You're a MORON! (When the Internet Attacks) [McFearsome]
[via Kotaku]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 24 March 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: dumb criminals, jesse mcpherson, theft, vigilante justice
Good for him. Good ol' sleuthing and some internet help he got his justice.
I have no pity for the thief. He got harassed for stealing and totally deserved it. Anything short of violence, I'll tolerate. IM's, email, snail mail, phone calls... oh I'd probably participate in some of it as well.