Grandmother sues cop who wrongly targeted her home using “Find My” app

In January, Colorado police officers confined a 77-year-old grandmother named Ruby Johnson for hours in a squad car without even offering a glass of water during a time when she was due to take her daily medications—why?

Nobody told Johnson what was going on when she opened her front door to a SWAT team assembled on her lawn. Much later, she found out about a stolen truck—reportedly with six guns and an iPhone stashed inside—wrongly believed to be parked in her garage based on no evidence other than her home being located within a wide blue circle drawn by a “Find My” iPhone app. Now she’s suing a Denver cop for conducting what she believes was an illegal search of her home based on what her legal team describes as either an intentionally or recklessly defective application for a search warrant that was “wholly devoid of probable cause.” Because of the allegedly improper raid, the retired US Postal Service worker had to “endure an unreasonable search and seizure, unlawful police confinement, and severe physical and emotional distress.”

“This illegal search has destroyed Ms. Johnson’s sense of safety and security in the home that has been her castle for 40 years,” Johnson’s complaint reads.

Police had been tipped off to raid Johnson’s home by a truck theft victim who had attempted to find his stolen vehicle by using his “Find My” app to determine the general area where his iPhone could be.

Renting a car, the victim drove around Johnson’s neighborhood, patrolling an approximately four-block radius pictured on a map generated by the app. The victim decided if his truck was anywhere in this vicinity, it was probably parked inside Johnson’s garage. The Denver Police Department officer assigned to follow up on the stolen truck, Gary Staab, then seemingly adopted the victim’s hunch as hard evidence, filing an affidavit requesting a search warrant that directly connected Johnson's address with the victim's reported "Find My" app evidence.

Story continues at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/grandmother-sues-cop-who-wro...