Kotaku
The Internet's got Jesse McPherson's back.
On March 12 McPherson returned from SXSW to discover that his home had been broken into and that the burglar had made off with his Xbox 360, an old Powerbook and a television.
Familiar with the competence of the Philadelphia police, McPherson decided to hunt for the items himself and soon found that the burglar had tried to sell his laptop at a local pawn shop, which has images of the guy from their camera. He tries to give the info to police, but never hears back.
Fast forward to Friday when McPherson's workmates present him with a replacement Xbox 360. He goes home, hooks it up and discovers a voice message on his 360 from some guy saying he has his 360 and wants cash to give it back. Better still the idiot uses his current account to leave the message.
McPherson calls police again and is hung up on... so he turns things over to the Internet and business is handled.
As everyone probably knows mob justice is a bitch and Digg Mob justice makes that look pretty. Since the story hit Digg the person who left the message asking for 360 ransom has been identified, his address and high school location posted, he's been harassed, seemingly endlessly, via AIM.
Eventually the kid caved and told his parents, McPherson was, apparently in touch with them and now seems to have all of his stuff back. According to his Twitter, the kid actually hand-delivered some of the stolen goods on Sunday.
Makes you feel good inside doesn't it?
Update: Wow, You're a Moron. When the Internet Attacks [McFearsome]
Comments
Simply awesome. It's things like this that make me love the internet.
you gotta love how stupid some people are
That is hilarious and brilliant, but also depressing.
He tried giving evidence for a burglarly to the cops, and they hung up on him? And people wonder why I've stopped beliving in Laws and the Justice system.
In situations like these, I LOVE to hear about good internet thrashings.
@Prae7orian: Amen to that. It's a powerful unifying force.
The Fury of the Internetz strikes again...
MUAUAHAAHA, justice!!! These stories are awesome.
Internet justice ftw.
Im more disturbed by the fact the police didnt seem to assist him with the theft.
Sweet vengeance.
Stupidity: Never gets old... like the Internet!
xD sweet sweet internate ownage...
Justice prevails once again...
let be one of the first to say OWN'D
Wow some criminals are just clueless.
Leave it to the people when the law fails.
I love it, absolutely love it.
What a low life.
@Polywhirl: "Yea, is this the Police?"
"Yes."
"Well, there's some dude who stole my Xbox360 a while ago and now he sent me a voice message confirming it and blackmailing me. He wants me to pay cash to get it back from him. Can you send someone over to collect evidence or something?"
"What's an Xbox?"
"Bye."
:P I kid, I kid.
NerdForce: Net Justice. Awesome. I wonder what would happen if he would have just lied and said "He stole my Xbox and 3 of my AK-47's and 2 scales". Maybe they would have acted.
lulz
Nothing like net street justice, F the police.
Sad that actual authority figures don't bother with real life crimes. Must be busy solving murders and the theft of millions by corporations.
Who am I kidding. Dunkin Donuts must be rigorously investigated and all evidence consumed... I mean confiscated.
Happy Easter Jesse McPherson.
High schoolers are pretty ballsy these days breaking into homes with all that MTV and Flavor of Love they be watchin
how come the guy who stole my 360 and laptop didn't leave me a voice message asking me to pay him for it? I had to rebuy both myself =[
The worst part is that the cops did come to out place and investigated, only to tell me that he suspected that someone in the house (IE me) must have done it and sold it, so they called off the investigation saying that I probably did it myself.
Would have preferred if the kid somehow got his face smashed, but I'll take this as well.
I suppose this is the first time Digg did anything but whine about pot, Ron Paul, Apple, Linux, and the RIAA.
first comment yay!
What an idiot!
Wow you police are incompetent.
Take the power back!
More proof that in the future police will be done away with and replaced with various degrees of Internet Trolls and Flamers. Think Judge Dread but with more ASCII art.
And law enforcement gets mad whenever people talk trash and dis them :( Gee i wonder why.
@MJDeviant: Unfortunatly that is lieing and with the misallocation of government personel for the problem you'd get in trouble.
like when i had a wreck on a major high, we only blocked 1 lane of traffic no cop came out, had i said we blocked the whole highway im sure one of the 5 cops i saw drive by would have stopped =p Cops...yeah they're awesome =p
Fox news spin:
Harassment over Xbox-Live increasing. What can you do for your children?
This is fantastic. This guy is the perfect example of the "Internet Tough Guy" that is rampant on Live!
LOL it's all fun and games until your parents find out.
I don't believe it digg changed something in the real world. Now all we have left is to get some competent people into governments, stop EA's relentless drive to buy every game developer on the planet, dismantle Scientology and get microsoft to stop using monopolistic practises. Digg get on it.
Being from "the hood", trust me when I tell you this:
The Pigs (Police) would rather find teenagers to harass,
than to help anyone.
@Modus_Operandi: That is truly terrifying.
You fuck with one of the family, you fuck with all of it!
Yeah, Philadelphia sucks. Nothing works, least of all the police force, so the whole city is kind of a free-for-all zone for whatever crime you want to commit unless it's actually murdering someone in a crowded public place. And if you're black, even that's open to negotiation.
Justice is sweet! and very funny!
ah what can't the internet do?
Internet - 1
Cops - 0
@Zaos: not all cops suck i blew out a tire on a highway and two cops stopped to check to see if i was ok one even came back to check up on me. so sure some cops suck but alot of them are actually good people who generally want to help people.
I would have killed the kid.
Literally.
(Your thoughts Jack Thompson?)
Wow.
Does anyone else consider this a really stupid idea?
What if the thief decided to shoot the guy instead of giving back the 360? Think stuff like that never happens?
The Philadelphia Police is some horrible law enforcement. They wait for rolling stoppers to ticket and fill their quota while gunshots are going off down the street!! No surprise they hung up on McPherson.
@Witzbold: Same. He delivered the picture of the guy and a way to get his name out of the deal, and the police were silent about it. They just had to double-check the work he already did, how hard is that?
Internet mob justice. Less violence and more harassment than real mob justice. There is also 90% less chance of a riot/lynching.
(100% of all statistics pulled from the department that is hidden from the sun.)
pretty beautiful.
See this is why it's called the motherf**king NET!
Yes... this is great.
Haha, I love it when thinks work out for people. Nice to see he got all his stuff back too, ya know.
True story, a burglar here in the Netherlands lost his ID card while doing the theft. Victim found the card, gave it to the police who went to the suspect, a known criminal, who calmly said, I didn't do it. That was that, the ID card not proof enough of any misdeeds and they actually returned it to him at the spot.
Anyway, glad the person got all his stuff back.
Wow that kid's fuckin stupid. Who the hell is he trying to be leaving audio ransom notes? Using his own account no less. I just wish he got a punch for each digg this got.
And what's with the police? There's no excuse for that lack of action.
i was part of the digg mob!
good to see that mob justice works
I find most of the time its not usually the patrol cops who are the problem, but the operators that take the calls.
Pretty much in all my dealings with law enforcement folks on the street have been rather good, cept for when it was dealing with them over the phone. :x
Then again its the impersonal barrier of the phone like the internet that allows for super dickery to go down eh? :/
That police force is full of crap, the guy gives a very good clue and the person he talked to thought it was a joke or something? Someone needs to be fired.
Rock on internet \m/
Wow that kid sure looks gangsta. I wouldn't want to mess with him! That bling gives him mad street cred yo. I bet he also has tattoos of very tough and scary things.