The state of California may be bankrupt, but that unfortunate fact didn’t stop three law enforcement agencies and a sheriff’s helicopter from conducting an all-out search for a man who allegedly stole a Droid smartphone.
Yes, indeed, the (obviously priceless and irreplaceable) Android device was taken from a hapless pedestrian who was walking in swanky Palo Alto Tuesday evening.
But wait, it gets even better.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the thief apparently asked his victim if he could “borrow” the cell phone.
Of course, the perpetrator pocketed the Droid and rode off on his bicycle as soon as the witless nitwit handed it over.
“A responding police officer spotted the suspect at El Camino Real and West Charleston Road and chased him on foot until he managed to escape through a condominium complex at El Camino Real and El Camino Way,” wrote Jesse Dungan of the Mercury News.
“Los Altos and Mountain View officers [then] helped set up a perimeter, [while] Palo Alto police conducted a yard-to-yard search of the area, alerting nearby residents.
“[Subsequently], a Santa Clara County sheriff’s helicopter that was monitoring the area provided assistance after hearing about the search over police radio frequencies.”
Unsurprisingly, Palo Alto police officer Max Nielepko defended the city’s response to the so-called “Droid crisis” of 2010.
“Whenever we see there’s a threat to public safety, we’re going to dedicate any resources we have to apprehend that person. [And In this case], the threat to public safety would be an unknown person jumping through citizens’ backyards.”
All this over an Android? Can you imagine if it had been an iPhone?!?!
