His first mistake was robbing a bank, police say. His second, fleeing on an electric scooter. [View all]
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His first mistake was robbing a bank, police say. His second was allegedly fleeing on an electric scooter.
By Peter Holley
Technology reporter
January 29
Luca Mangiaranos first alleged mistake was robbing a bank. ... His second: using an electric scooter as his getaway vehicle. ... Aside from the fact that the Silicon Valley imports top out at about 15 mph, police have begun to realize that theyre also something approaching a digital fingerprint on wheels.
Turning a rental scooter on, as regular users know, requires a rider to use an app that contains their phone number, email address and credit card information. Youll probably be unsurprised to learn that these are the kinds of personal details that make it easy for police to track down criminals.
Just over a month after his alleged crime, Mangiarano was arrested and charged with robbery by threat, police said. ... This was a learning experience for me and the robbery unit, Detective Jason Chiappardi of the Austin police department said. We had never had a scooter involved in a robbery. One of the first things I learned was that every scooter has its own design based on their decals and other specific differences.
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The Dec. 18 incident began when the 19-year-old entered BBVA Compass bank in downtown Austin and handed a teller a note demanding cash, police said. Authorities declined to say how much money was stolen, but Fox 7 Austin reported that police said the note included specific instructions: This is a robbery, please give me all your 100′s and 50′s in a envelope and everything will be ok. ... Once the employee gave him the cash, Mangiarano left the bank, police said, leaving police a trail of electronic bread crumbs waiting to be plucked from the cloud.
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Uber has a law enforcement operations team made up of former law enforcement professionals who work directly with detectives on investigations, the company says.
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Peter Holley is a technology reporter at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2014, he was a features writer at the Houston Chronicle and a crime reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. Follow
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