A pair of stolen AirPods caused an innocent family to be ambushed by a SWAT team in St. Louis County, Missouri last May. This is what was going on.
Wrong police raid due to stolen AirPods
On May 26 around 6:30 p.m., Brittany Shamily was home with her children when police smashed into her front door with a battering ram. Bodycam footage shows Shamily approaching the heavily armed police at the front door in complete confusion.
The SWAT team was looking for weapons in connection with a carjacking which had occurred approximately 12 hours earlier and more than 15 miles away. Around 6 a.m., two brothers left a restaurant and were then carjacked by a group of six people.
Police follow ‘Find My’ from the AirPods
The St. Louis County Police Department was then called. A friend of the brothers told police that his stolen AirPods were in the car and that he was able to track them using the “Find My” app on his iPhone. According to the lawsuit, the app showed that the AirPods were in Shamily’s home.
An officer applied for a search warrant based on the “Find My” result. According to him, because he had reason to believe that it contained firearms, ammunition and other firearms-related material. Then the police showed up there in full combat gear and with a battering ram.
Police deploy a SWAT team
While the family was held outside, the house was virtually ransacked by the SWAT team. A three-month-old baby was even taken outside without mercy. After half an hour, the house was one big chaos and the stolen AirPods were finally found: on the street, a little in front of the family’s house.
The family is now seeking damages for embarrassment, unreasonable use of force, loss of freedom and other factors. According to their lawyer, the way SWAT teams attack resembles a military operation. And the fact that SWAT teams are being deployed for so many search warrants is concerning.
Moreover, the officer’s conclusion that the stolen AirPods were in the house was far too simplistic. He called in a SWAT team based on that alone. He probably could have avoided all this misery if he had first approached the location a little closer.
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