apple watch handcuffed naked
1 year ago
Published August 17, 2021 by

Handcuffed naked to bed by burglar, N.J. woman alerts police via Apple Watch

From AppleInsider's "Apple Watch used to call for help during armed burglary" posted Tuesday:

A 20-year-old woman used her Apple Watch to call for help while being held at gunpoint during a burglary, a bold move that potentially led to the robber's arrest.

An unnamed woman in West Milford, New Jersey, was able to make an emergency text from her Apple Watch after a home intruder handcuffed and held her captive as he rummaged through her belongings on Sunday, reports NorthJersey.com.

The victim walked in on 31-year-old Andrew Canning, who was armed with what was later discovered to be an airsoft gun, according to a court affidavit. Threatening the woman with the replica firearm, Canning allegedly demanded she remove her clothes to ensure that she wasn't carrying a weapon. He then handcuffed her hands behind her back and left her naked on the floor, the victim told police.

"This could go easy or this could go hard," Canning allegedly said. After about an hour, the woman complained that she was cold, prompting Canning to handcuff her to a bed, documents show. With one hand free, she was able to alert her 45-year-old mother, who was apparently upstairs, via Apple Watch. While the message reportedly contained a plea to call the police, it is unclear if those instructions were followed or if the message was generated by Apple's Emergency SOS feature.

My take: A twist on the usual saved-by-the-Apple-Watch story. But there must be other ways to be certain someone isn't carrying a concealed weapon.

4 Comments

  1. Rick Povich said:
    “ But there must be other ways to be certain your victim isn’t carrying a concealed weapon.”

    New politeness standards for criminals?

    3
    August 17, 2021
  2. Thomas Williams said:
    Response times mean a great deal to First Responders. How quickly fire/police/EMS arrive means everything to a potential victim. The advent of mobile phones dropped response times massively. Tweaks & upgrades we now take for granted including GPS, cameras, voice recorders, 911 improvements are still being adopted by emergency services globally. A towing service recently asked my consent to locate me but the flatbed driver still called me for directions 3x. Text to 911 is rolling out. Cell towers are hardened to withstand high winds & long power outages in many places, especially Louisiana & Florida. Most weren’t prior to Katrina. People know cell phones are their most important lifeline & never leave home without them. I wouldn’t swim a river to go get mine but I value the power of reliable comms under fire.

    1
    August 17, 2021
    • Bart Yee said:
      The ability of the iPhone and Watch to give precise location coordinates and info on the person alerting is crucial to getting help there quickly. Further text or voice communication is also helpful both to victim and responders.

      1
      August 17, 2021
  3. Rodney Avilla said:
    I believe the difference between a robbery and a burglary is that the victim is present with a robbery and not present with a burglary, although it’s been many years since I took criminology in college and I would gladly be corrected by our law enforcement 3.0 participants. So in this case, it was an armed robbery since the victim was present. I guess it could have started as a burglary, then turned into a robbery when the burglar came in contact with the victim. Either way, thank you Apple Watch. Now checking for an Apple watch may be added to the “New Politeness Standards Manual for Criminals” 2nd edition.

    1
    August 17, 2021

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