Four charged with swiping $1m+ of gear from Microsoft cargo trucks

Four men accused of stealing more than $1 million worth of products from Microsoft's cargo trucks in the US have been charged with multiple counts including felony grand theft. California state police arrested two of the suspects on February 2, and the other two remain at large. According to a felony complaint [PDF], between …

[Brian 3]

So basically, if they hadn't registered the devices AT HOME then the CHP had NOTHING to go on? They wouldn't have had the warrants to track the cell phone locations without tracing the stolen goods first.

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't need anything else.

[Richard 12]

Always start with the easy stuff.

Often you don't need anything else

[JimboSmith]

Then, they allegedly registered some of the stolen devices using IP addresses located at Soto's home in Northridge, Los Angeles. Additionally, the cops traced the alleged crooks' mobile devices to several of the hijacked cargo trucks' locations.

If the above is true then I do hope none of them are wondering why they were caught. I know cellphone networks will provide which cellphones were in an area switched on to law enforcement agencies. The criminals might be regretting the fact they didn’t know this. If it’s a rural location then they’ll stick out like a sore thumb, owing to the probably limited numbers of cellphones nearby.

[Anonymous Coward]

Northridge isn’t rural

It’s in the San Fernando Valley, part of the City of Los Angeles. Just a few million people nearby, including the Kardashians.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Northridge isn’t rural

Yeah I know Northridge well, which is where one of the suspects lives but I’m guessing not where the robberies took actual place. If the thefts occurred on the freeway in a more remote location he’s right they would be easy to identify through their mobiles.being present.

[Orv]

Re: Northridge isn’t rural

In some ways it works the other way 'round -- if you're in an urban area and you hit a 5G microcel it's easy to know your location to within a few blocks. If you're in a rural area you might be on a tower that covers ten miles or more.

There was a case in rural California where the cops tried to use a cell phone tower ping as evidence that someone was at the location of a crime...problem was only one tower covered the whole town, which the suspect lived in, so the chances of his phone hitting that tower were 100% whether he was involved or not.

[MiguelC]

US retailers lose about $700,000 per every $1 billion in sales to organized retail crime

So, 0,07%? The number doesn't seem so big now, does it....

[PhilipN]

White collar enhancement ….?

Yup. It’s a thing (had to look it up).

[captain veg]

no title

"The four men stole Acer products from Microsoft lorries"

So, shoddy and shoddier?

-A.

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: no title

Should have looked for computer recyclers who had old IBM Model M keyboards, which now go for $100+