:ancap-good:
https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2023/02/25/volkswagen-says-company-requiring-payment-for-location-of-abducted-child-near-libertyville-was-serious-breach-of-policy/
The employee looked up the VIN and confirmed the vehicle could be tracked but declined to do it because the trial period for the software in the car had ended.
Can’t make this shit up
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief...
I guarantee that poor bastard at the call center is getting blamed for this and did exactly what he was told to do
Only the tenderest of brains would think an individual would withhold this info on their own volition, it is 100% a policy to not give that info under any circumstances
My thinking is more that the system itself wouldn't let him ping the car because the trial had expired and he just relayed that info and wouldn't have the power to do it at all, and had to escalate the issue internally
One time the cops do something useful
The private sector stops them
On one hand I wouldn't want the cops officially being able to force corps to hand over that information, but on the other hand using GPS data to track the kid seems like a decently logical solution to the situation given what's on-hand. Could certainly do worse
I'm split on this story.
It could be a couple of ham fisted porkers screaming "Tell us where the child is!" at a starvation wages Philippines call center guy who has no idea what the call is about.
Or it could be VW has some automated process where you literally can't pull the data until you've entered a credit card number first, warrants be damned.
Either way, normal country being normal.
:porky-scared-flipped: "We'd love to help you but you're just trying to take advantage of our humanity! We'll make the information available as soon as you provide photographic evidence there's an abducted child inside of the vehicle..."
:porky-happy: "For just $50 we can activate the camera inside the car."
This is basically how everything runs. It's really up to you to just get the right person at the right day. Than smooth sailing.
