screwed up news people...

[Magnum50]

This is why you citizens can't trust everything you read in your local newspaper. lol
It's an article from our local paper here, the arresting officer is me, and the dog is my partner, "Shadow".

Can you spot the obvious mis-information in the article... I'll tell you at the end.

copy/paste:

naplesnews.com
Two charged with stealing Porsche headlights
Daily News staff

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Naples police arrested two men Wednesday morning suspected of prying $32,000 worth of car headlights from Porsches at a Naples dealership.

Police said they recovered 16 stolen headlights from the trunk of a car driven by Mario Balboa, 20, of Miami. Balboa and his passenger, Carlos Manuel Hernandez, 24, also of Miami, were charged with burglary, grand theft, criminal mischief and possessing burglary tools.

Police said they pulled Balboa’s car over at about 3 a.m., at 2555 Ninth St. N., because the light illuminating his license plate was not working. Balboa was sweating profusely, shaking and breathing heavily, officers said. Police also observed small blood stains on Balboa’s shirt.

Police said they used a police dog to search the vehicle after they noticed a crowbar on the floor of the car. The dog was able to locate the stolen headlights in the truck.

Investigators believe the headlights were stolen from the Shelton Jaguar dealership at 800 U.S. 41 N. Eight of the dealership’s vehicles were vandalized and were missing headlights, police said.

Removing headlights from a Porsche causes about $1,000 worth of damage to the car, investigators said.

Lt. Jon Maines, spokesman for the Naples Police Department, said the pair also had an address for a Porsche dealership in Sarasota. Maines said they probably were on their way to burglarize the Sarasota dealership when they were stopped.

Maines said Hernandez and Balboa likely were collecting the headlights to be sold on the black market in Miami.

© 2006 Naples Daily News and NDN Productions. Published in Naples, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.

end of copy/paste...

So did you guess?

Police said they used a police dog to search the vehicle after they noticed a crowbar on the floor of the car. The dog was able to locate the stolen headlights in the truck.

lol, My dog is NOT trained to find headlights, otherwise he would alert on every car with a headlight... my dog is trained to find narcotics! He alerted on the car, giving us legal reason to search, then I found the headlights... they had originally refused to let us search the car, which you can do... but I dog can do a "free air sniff" around the car and if he alerts, thats probable cause to go in it.

There, so never trust everything you read.

[Steeler]

Also, funny math:

Originally Posted by Magnum50

Naples police arrested two men Wednesday morning suspected of prying $32,000 worth of car headlights from Porsches at a Naples dealership.

---

Eight of the dealership’s vehicles were vandalized and were missing headlights, police said.

Removing headlights from a Porsche causes about $1,000 worth of damage to the car, investigators said.

8 damaged cars x $1000 = $8000

or

16 removed headlights x $1000 = $16,000

Not sure how you get to $32,000

[Magnum50]

the headlights actually cost 1800 each, and I know the damage to each car was more then 1000 bucks, lol, heck a 3 inch dent is 1000 bucks to repair.

But that was the dealerships numbers.

[leejo]

You said your dog alerted but there's no mention of recovering any drugs from the car. Just out of curiosity, how do you explain that. I.e. do you believe that there recently were drugs in the car? If so, how much and how recent might cause your dog to alert?

Beatnik wants to know.

[Trooper]

actually leejo thats what i was wondering also. Im not formilliar with police dogs noses but I dont think they just fake it, false positive. Where drugs ever recoverd? Still kind of interesting, stopped becuase of a plate light being out, and you recover 32K worth of stuff. Well you could have gotten new lights for your family van, but you wouldnt do that....

[Magnum50]

yes there was drugs, a very small amount in the center console... it can be explained but that would be too much info.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Magnum50

dog can do a "free air sniff" around the car and if he alerts, thats probable cause to go in it.

I thought that was pretty impressive that your dog hit on Porsche headlights...

BTW, we had a discussion about this back when the SCOTUS was considering that big K9 case: http://www.tacticalgamer.com/sandbox...itutional.html

[Magnum50]

I read the first page of that post, then got bored... alot of mis-information in there, lol.

Just to cover the basics...in the state of Florida... you need 400 hours of school training with a dog in narcotics, then you have to be tested yearly with the dog by two outside agency certified K9 trainers, then you have to have 4 hours of narc training a week with your dog... you have to have all this recorded and able to produce in court.

You have to demonstrate your dogs work in front of a jury and judge if they request it, they never have.

Your house is your HOME, and I fully agree that it's your castle and cops shouldn't come on property or in the house without a warrant, or being called for a serious crime. (domestic, yelling in back ground and phone goes dead.)

The car is not your home, IMO it's a privilege, and with that privilege you should forgo certain rights with it in the interest of public safety.

If I stop a car and I want to use the dog to search, even without any suspicion, I have to follow one big rule, I can't detain the driver for any longer then necessary, the courts ruling that 20 minutes is that limit. A officer can't stop you, say "were going to wait here till K9 gets here", what he has to do is stop the car, if he wants a search, he starts writing either a citation or warning, because you can't delay, you have to be doing something... till K9 arrives for the search, all within 20 minutes.

But my personal rule to my fellow officers, if they stop a car and they see signs of suspicion, (I won't go into those signs, but some were mentioned), ask if they have guns or drugs in the car (and watch how they answer... body language and how they reply), if continued suspicion, ask if you can search there car, telling them... "you don't have to let me, (we have cameras in all are cars, so it looks good when a defense attorney says his client was pressured to comply.)

If they say, sure go ahead.. then search it yourself, he gave you permission, forfeiting his right to not being delayed... if they say NO, then the officer can not search, period. but then he simply calls me with my K9, as he's writing the warning or citation, so not to delay the driver any more then allowed.. I arrive and do a free air sniff around the car, simply walking my dog around the car if he smells one of the 7 drugs he's trained on he sits and stares at it. (did you know a human has 5 million cells for smelling in the nose, a German Shepard has 225 million)...

due to his training, experience, and my record keeping... that is probable cause to go into the car and search... and just to let you know, he has never alerted on a car that either didn't have dope in it, or they admitted that had it in before or smoked it a while ago...

See, it's quite possible to get an alert and find nothing...

If a subject is down at the beach, he rolls a joint, smokes it, gets it all over his hand, then leaves, gets into his car and is stopped, my dog will alert on the door handle he touched to get in.

I had one guy, a known drug dealer, he was stopped I arrived for the search, he was out signing tickets, the dog alerted on the driver door, that gives me permission to go in, I opened the door the door smelled the seat and alerted, I checked every where with no luck finding it... we were about to let him go, when a warrant came over the radio for his arrest, he was arrested, transported to the jail and stripped search due to felony warrant, they find a condom packed with Marijuana up his butt, that of course is why the dog alerted on his seat... lessoned learned.

well, now I shared more then I ever wanted, lol... I could talk about this stuff all day, but shouldn't.

one more thing... it was talked about in another thread... legalizing Marijuana, really I could care less if they do it, hell I might take a week off and smoke some myself, lol.. but not heroin or cocaine, those are bad people, really bad...I've seen it first hand... anyway...

If they ever legalize Marijuana every drug dog in America (or the state that legalized it) will be no use anymore, departments all across the land will loose the money they have invested in there dogs, if they even buy new dogs there will be a shortage and it will take years before new dogs come on bored only trained on the new illegal drugs... because you can not un-train a dog on a odor, and a drug dog can not be trained on a odor that can be legal for some like pills ect ect.


So, for law enforcement and especially K9 units every where, legalizing marijuana will be very bad.

now back to GRAW.

[RandomGuy]

Anyone who's ever been involved in or has first hand knowledge of a local news story even in a minor role can usually attest to how messed up news reporting is.

If they don't get it just plain wrong (headlight-sniffing dogs) they misrepresent or misquote people and then try to package the story up so the reader gets either a "warm fuzzy" or a "cold chilly".

[experiment626]

But my personal rule to my fellow officers, if they stop a car and they see signs of suspicion, (I won't go into those signs, but some were mentioned), ask if they have guns or drugs in the car (and watch how they answer... body language and how they reply), if continued suspicion, ask if you can search there car, telling them...


Funny...I used to use the same trick on border stops. "GOt any machine guns, grenade launchers or nuclear weapons in your car...?" Most people would chuckle or give a quick laugh, it's those two guys you pull over at 1am on the west mesa, who go all silent on you...that's when my hand slide's down to my thumb strap...

[Beatnik]

Originally Posted by Magnum50

I had one guy, a known drug dealer, he was stopped I arrived for the search, he was out signing tickets, the dog alerted on the driver door, that gives me permission to go in, I opened the door the door smelled the seat and alerted, I checked every where with no luck finding it... we were about to let him go, when a warrant came over the radio for his arrest, he was arrested, transported to the jail and stripped search due to felony warrant, they find a condom packed with Marijuana up his butt, that of course is why the dog alerted on his seat... lessoned learned.

Isn't it easier to get high if you just smoke the stuff?

[experiment626]

Originally Posted by Beatnik

Isn't it easier to get high if you just smoke the stuff?

LMAO

[Trooper]

Originally Posted by Bonehead

ROFL!

Went to a trailer house fire, as soon as we rolled up (no pun intended), we noticed a "funny" smell, the back rooms were full of weed LOL. Thank goodness we were wearing SCBA's (airpacks), otherwise we would have had a bunch of stoned fire fighters ! LOL

thats when you accidentally turn your exhaust fan on suck instead of blow..lol

[perry]

This article should be of interest to you, Magnum.. Dogs trained by the MPAA to sniff out DVD's.

[Evo<^|SiNz|^>]

I'm a journalist myself, and while the error in that article is small, its a sign of bigger problems in journalism. There are a couple of problems actually. Writers and reporters often cut factual corners to make a story "sound" better, or better relate the story to the common man. In the situation above, it looks like the writer is trying to say the K-9 search led to the discovery of the stolen headlights. Instead, he inadvertently credited the dog with the discovery.

Another problem is simple ignorance of small facts which can make or break a story. Tight deadlines sometimes lead journalists to guess or assume at these facts. In this case, perhaps the reporter didn't follow up with the department to figure out the true sequence of events (police reports are often pretty vague to us media folk). I'm not making excuses though. In fact, I think it's disturbing that this happens so often, especially in TV news. Reporters make assumptions ALL THE TIME, and very rarely are these small gaffes corrected. It's the nature of the news beast though.