can i be arrested

[smayoski213]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ny
a stolen iPhone was turned on and traced to my house via wifi connection , however I was not home nor can the phone be found anywhere. can I be arrested for it and is a gps tracker sufficient proof of thef??

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ny
a stolen iPhone was turned on and traced to my house via wifi connection , however I was not home nor can the phone be found anywhere. can I be arrested for it and is a gps tracker sufficient proof of thef??

Yup. You can be arrested. If so talk only to your Attorney.

 

[smayoski213]

Yup. You can be arrested. If so talk only to your Attorney.

I thought they could only arrest and charge you if they can prove you stole the property and as far as I know that iPhone isn't even here , I looked everywhere and asked everyone that lives there also.

 

[Just Blue]

I thought they could only arrest and charge you if they can prove you stole the property and as far as I know that iPhone isn't even here , I looked everywhere and asked everyone that lives there also.

Then don't worry about it.

Your question was "CANT they arrest me"...Not WILL they arrest me".

If, on the off chance you are arrested...Talk only to your attorney.

Based on your 1st post I really don't think you should worry overmuch. Tho it IS curious that they tracked this phone to your home...wonder why?

 

[smayoski213]

Then don't worry about it.

Your question was "CANT they arrest me"...Not WILL they arrest me".

If, on the off chance you are arrested...Talk only to your attorney.

Based on your 1st post I really don't think you should worry overmuch. Tho it IS curious that they tracked this phone to your home...wonder why?

oh ok , and that is the question we are asking ourselves also , it is an odd situation because nobody was at the house when this was done. I am wondering if the wifi was accessed from outside the house since it is set up to use without a password. I assume that they cannot arrest everyone in the household based soley on a gps signal.

 

[LdiJ]

oh ok , and that is the question we are asking ourselves also , it is an odd situation because nobody was at the house when this was done. I am wondering if the wifi was accessed from outside the house since it is set up to use without a password. I assume that they cannot arrest everyone in the household based soley on a gps signal.

No, of course they could not arrest everyone in the house based on a GPS signal (Well, I suppose that they could, but would be highly unlikely to do so) but it would certainly be a valid reason to question everyone in the house.

As far as I know though, GPS has nothing to do with wifi...so that part is confusing. However if your wifi is not password protected and they actually picked it up from that, someone could have easily been near your house, and connected to your wifi. My laptop shows over a dozen wifi networks I could connect to if they weren't password protected.

 

[smayoski213]

No, of course they could not arrest everyone in the house based on a GPS signal (Well, I suppose that they could, but would be highly unlikely to do so) but it would certainly be a valid reason to question everyone in the house.

As far as I know though, GPS has nothing to do with wifi...so that part is confusing. However if your wifi is not password protected and they actually picked it up from that, someone could have easily been near your house, and connected to your wifi. My laptop shows over a dozen wifi networks I could connect to if they weren't password protected.

that is what happened , someone picked up my wifi signal from outside and turned on the iPhone then it was traced to my house. from what I was told they have to prove we have the phone and that we stole the phone , fortunately , we were not home at the time and the phone is no where to be found , so it looks like they will question and harass us and that is about it , but it is all nonsense. I do appreciate the feedback on this.

 

[TigerD]

that is what happened , someone picked up my wifi signal from outside and turned on the iPhone then it was traced to my house. from what I was told they have to prove we have the phone and that we stole the phone , fortunately , we were not home at the time and the phone is no where to be found , so it looks like they will question and harass us and that is about it , but it is all nonsense. I do appreciate the feedback on this.

1. "We" - Do you have a mouse in your pocket?
2. Barring the possibility of mistake, if the phone was tracked there, it was there. There being within the range of your wifi.
3. Unsecured wifi - you are either a lying to us or criminally stupid and thus deserving of going down for someone else's crime
4. I don't believe your story for a second. I believe that either you or one of your friends stole it and you are getting cold feet. You probably tossed it somewhere. Let's run down why:

a stolen iPhone was turned on and traced to my house via wifi connection , however I was not home nor can the phone be found anywhere. can I be arrested for it and is a gps tracker sufficient proof of thef (SIC)??

How do you know you were not not at the time? Opps.

I thought they could only arrest and charge you if they can prove you stole the property and as far as I know that iPhone isn't even here , I looked everywhere and asked everyone that lives there also.

So you ditched it. Or told the person who stole it to ditch it.

I am wondering if the wifi was accessed from outside the house since it is set up to use without a password. I assume that they cannot arrest everyone in the household based soley on a gps signal.

1. You cannot know that nobody was home. You can only know that you were not home.
2. See comment about unsecured wifi being criminally stupid.
3. A GPS is considerably different than a wifi connection.

that is what happened , someone picked up my wifi signal from outside and turned on the iPhone then it was traced to my house. from what I was told they have to prove we have the phone and that we stole the phone , fortunately , we were not home at the time and the phone is no where to be found , so it looks like they will question and harass us and that is about it

This leads me to believe that you are a cowardly criminal testing out a story. Still don't know who we is. However, anyone dumb enough to leave their wifi unsecured in the age of kiddie porn is dumb enough to be punked out by his friends or neighbors. You say the phone is no where to be found. But the way you say that leads me to think that is because you tossed it.

And the fun part: Maybe you get away with this one. But you should go straight, give up crime, and stay away from criminals, because you are not smart enough to get away with it. Police officers are not stupid. You are attracting their attention. And they have pretty good memories.

DC

 

[tranquility]

An IP address, as much as the government wants it to be, is not yet considered a person in that the owner is responsible for it. That does not mean the owner does not have some 'splainin' to do, but a crime associated solely with an IP address is not enough to convict.

It IS enough for probable cause for a search warrant. And, in some cases, probable cause for an arrest.

The thing is, we don't know if the police solely have an IP address. GPS/cell/wifi hits may have traced a path from the crime directly to the OP's house. If so, that is a bit more interesting. Perhaps the connection goes to a location where license plate photographs are taken for some purpose and the police can link things up with that. It all depends on the actual facts and the effort the police will go through to track down the culprit. I suspect the police will allocate their resources elsewhere. But, it may depend upon who the owner of the phone was and what data it contained.