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Brooklyn Teen Says NYPD's Bogus Sob Story Prompted Illegal iPhone Sting Arrest
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 28, 2011
Modified Dec 28, 2011
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 28, 2011
Modified Dec 28, 2011
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After the NYPD arrested 141 people in a four-day iPhone/iPad sting a few weeks ago, a Brooklyn business owner noted that one of his employees who was arrested "doesn't speak much English." Commissioner Ray Kelly dismissed the idea that any of the arrested were unlawfully detained. "It was clear that the devices had been stolen, in their minds," Kelly said. But now a Brooklyn teenager who was arrested claims he was entrapped by an undercover officer, telling the boy that the phone was purchased legally and that he needed to feed his daughter. "He was really persistent," 19-year-old Rob Tester tells the Brooklyn Paper. "I felt sympathy." Lesson learned: never do anything about the misfortune of others.
Tester, a BMCC student, was leaving the McKinley Park Library on Fort Hamilton Parkway when a man began begging him to buy his iPhone for $20. Tester said he refused, but the man was persistent, saying he couldn't feed his children on Christmas day. As soon as Tester paid for the phone, the police pounced, and he spend the next 26 hours in jail.
An employee at a 86th Street newsstand who witnessed another man get arrested in the sting, said in that case, the undercover agent also said the phone was purchased legally, and gave a similar sob story. "[The guy working with police] never said it was a stolen phone, he said that he bought it from an Apple store the day before, but now he needed the money for his wife."
NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne continues to deny that the police were entrapping people. “They were clearly told the items were stolen as the reason for them being offered for sale so cheaply,” he tells the paper.
Tester's father says he's hired attorney Matthew Galluzzo, and plans to sue the city. "If a police officer comes up and says, 'I own this thing,' that is not stolen, you don't have a right to arrest that person," Galluzzo says. "It's entrapment."
Tagged
ipad
iphone
lucky bag
nypd
Ray Kelly
sting
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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