Verizon Staff Busted For Allegedly Stealing Customer's Nude Pics

[The Wooster]

Verizon Staff Busted For Allegedly Stealing Customer's Nude Pics

A Verizon store worker has confessed to receiving nude pictures copied from a female customer's phone.

Two Verizon store workers have ran into trouble with the law after being caught with very private photographs stolen from a local waitress's phone.

According to the police report, Joshua Stuart, a 24-year-old working at a Verizon store in Bartow, Florida, copied the photographs when a local, unnamed waitress asked him to transfer her data from her old handset to a new smartphone. Stuart then shared the pictures, described as "very private in nature" with his fellow worker, one Gregory Lambert.

Police were informed of the theft when a local bartender came into the same store and, in what I can only imagine was one of the classiest conversations of all time, Stuart asked him if he knew any of the local waitresses and offered to show him "banging pictures." Apparently Stuart's stolen spank material storage techniques were a little rusty, as he couldn't find the pictures on his computer and instead had to ask Lambert to show the customer his copies. As it turns out, the bartender did know the waitress in question, but rather than chortle at her lady bumps, he told her what had happened and contacted the police.

Both the waitress and her friend positively identified the two employees and she confirmed that she had not given consent for the images to be copied.

The police obtained a warrant to search the store and found the images on a laptop and two phones belonging to Lambert. Lambert later confessed to receiving the images, as well as stealing similar photos from a different customer's phone. He's been charged with two felony counts of dealing in stolen property as well as misdemeanor theft and handling of lewd materials. Stuart is currently out of state, and will face charges when, or if, he returns.

Source: The Smoking Gun [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/nude-cell-phone-pics?page=1] via The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/03/verizon_nude_pics_theft/]




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[BreakfastMan]

She really should have taken better precautions so as not to accidentaly expose her private information herself like that. Still, those guys are total creeps and deserved to be exposed to the naked light of day.

[sub]BreakfastMan here playing the role of DVS BSTrD[/sub]

 

[MetalMagpie]

Whoops?

Dubious employees of the world: If you come by saucy pictures in a less-than-legitimate manner, for crying out loud don't show them to other people!

Less important but still relevant: If you give a stranger access to your personal data, they will probably look at it.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Who the hell asks a CUSTOMER if they want to check out your stolen nude pics???

You know, some people are so stupid they deserve to be locked up. These geniuses are certainly among them.

 

[Slayer_2]

Who the hell asks a CUSTOMER if they want to check out your stolen nude pics???

You know, some people are so stupid they deserve to be locked up. These geniuses are certainly among them.

This, so much this. As a computer repair tech, I would never do something this slimy, I've come across nudes before, and you should just ignore them and move on, like you would any other file. However, if you are gonna be a perv, then for gods sake, don't brag about your "work" to other clients...

Captcha: "maple syrup reserve". God forbid if it runs out. God forbid.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

'It ain't a bad idea 'till its gotten the Escapist Official Bad Idea seal'


Little do they know, they weren't arrested for stealing the pics, they were arrested for unprecedented amounts of stupid

 

[Lawyer105]

As horrible as their actions were and however much they deserve to be locked up, I can't help feeling just a teensy bit sorry for them.

Sure, they couldn't have made a worse series of decisions if they tried, but it seems just a smidge unfair that they're going to carry the whole can for this debacle. Personally, I feel pretty strongly that the person who put those photo's on the phone and then handed it in deserves at least a portion of the head-smack that's coming on this one.

In no way am I excusing their actions but this strikes me as being remarkably similar to celebrities who scream about privacy while, at the same time, parading their private lives for all to see.

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

 

[Orcboyphil]

The police seemed to have forgotten the interception of communications charges and copyright infringement.

 

[Olrod]

So this guy essentially told a prospective customer that he copies private and personal files?

Good thing they were "only" nudey pics and not anything financially important, such as bank details!

 

[smithy_2045]

Classy stuff from these guys...

 

[Palademon]

I'm sorry, what exactly is "handling lewd materials"?
This is a thing?

 

[Thaluikhain]

As horrible as their actions were and however much they deserve to be locked up, I can't help feeling just a teensy bit sorry for them.

Sure, they couldn't have made a worse series of decisions if they tried, but it seems just a smidge unfair that they're going to carry the whole can for this debacle. Personally, I feel pretty strongly that the person who put those photo's on the phone and then handed it in deserves at least a portion of the head-smack that's coming on this one.

In no way am I excusing their actions but this strikes me as being remarkably similar to celebrities who scream about privacy while, at the same time, parading their private lives for all to see.

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

Dafuq?

Ok, I can sorta understand blaming the victim, in the usual "you wouldn't leave your door unlocked" way...but how does that lead to feeling sorry for people who decided to go out of their way to commit crimes?

Likewise, there's a very big difference between making your fortune out of making your private life public and wanting it kept private, and having stuff on a phone and wanting it kept private

 

[Kargathia]

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

That's a lot of precautions for a porn stash. Your tastes in fap-material must be either very... interesting, or very boring.

OT: I certainly do love the assorted amounts of stupid on display here. The customer really should've realised that if you have nude pics on your phone, employees copying your data might look at them - but even that pales in comparison to showing the results of your illegal activities to a customer. If only he'd have died... we'd have a new Darwin Award recipient right there.

 

[RJ 17]

As horrible as their actions were and however much they deserve to be locked up, I can't help feeling just a teensy bit sorry for them.

Sure, they couldn't have made a worse series of decisions if they tried, but it seems just a smidge unfair that they're going to carry the whole can for this debacle. Personally, I feel pretty strongly that the person who put those photo's on the phone and then handed it in deserves at least a portion of the head-smack that's coming on this one.

In no way am I excusing their actions but this strikes me as being remarkably similar to celebrities who scream about privacy while, at the same time, parading their private lives for all to see.

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

Your comparison to celebrities is way off base. This lady wasn't flaunting her private life, nor was she a celebrity in the public spotlight. She was a a woman that wanted to transfer her data to a new phone, and these guys decided that rather than just doing their job, they'd go snooping through said data.

I'm just having trouble seeing how you can blame her because these guys broke the law. It's an extreme example, but what you're saying is along the same premise as saying that a girl in a miniskirt and tank top that gets raped deserves it because "She shouldn't have been dressed like that." Just as you seem to be saying this girl deserved to have her naked pictures stolen just because she had them on her phone. Or, I don't know, perhaps the employees could have done their job which is to mind their own business and just transfer her data like she asked...it's not like she went in there trying to seduce the employees, HOPING they'd find her pictures. She's not famous, so it wasn't a publicity stunt. Your argument makes no sense, Mr. Lawyer.

 

[Fasckira]

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

Pretty much spot on. There is an assumption though that while transferring data that the service provider wouldn't be actually reading/looking at that info but the waitress should have really thought more. Why the hell did she have sexy photos of herself on her phone too?

The guys in this story are gibbons of the highest order but I'm assuming the conversation probably came up between them and the bartender because they were all acting like lads. In this instance, the bartender recognised the waitress and felt some moral obligation to tell her but I wonder if he would have done the same if he didn't? Would he have shared in the lols and carried on his merry way?

 

[oliver.begg]

I loled, as when i worked for vodafone NZ i had to cases kind of like this, on guy brought in a iPhone with his missus putting some... interesting things up her vag, and that was his wallpaper. he also was keen to show everyone the rest of the album

another guy was complaing that his phone was slowing down, when he had 6 GB of vids of him geting blown, fucked etc. the stupid munter swore up and down that he had no photos or vids on the phone as well... as if that would hid them when we synced it to check desk errors etc.

 

[Lawyer105]

As horrible as their actions were and however much they deserve to be locked up

Sorry, but what would throwing them in jail contribute to anything? This is a dumb thing they did, but it's hardly prison-worthy. Typically the thing where the arrest itself, a few days while awaiting bail, and a verdict of community service, will do the job.

I'll admit I was thinking more along the lines of "too stupid to be allowed to breed" locking up, rather than in relation to any crime they may or may not have committed. I say may or may not because I consider it much more in the nature of a misdemenour than a real crime.

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

Pretty much spot on. There is an assumption though that while transferring data that the service provider wouldn't be actually reading/looking at that info but the waitress should have really thought more.

While it's totally fine to operate under that assumption, it's more than a little naive. In an era when governments can "lose" social security flash drives and multinational corporations can "lose" customer account and credit card information, and these events happen with monotonous regularity, placing reliance on your service provider without taking additional precautions is, imho, foolish.

Your comparison to celebrities is way off base. This lady wasn't flaunting her private life, nor was she a celebrity in the public spotlight. She was a a woman that wanted to transfer her data to a new phone, and these guys decided that rather than just doing their job, they'd go snooping through said data.

Any time you have information that you don't want to share with other people (e.g. these photos) and you then make that information available to other people (e.g. by handing your phone or laptop in, or posting them on social media sites or whatever), you are tacitly accepting the risk that the information is going to go walkabout.

We're not talking about master criminals here. They didn't secretly hack her phone (or whatever) and do stuff that she could never have protected herself against. They simply took totally immoral advantage of an opportunity that SHE provided them.

I've got no issue with the dudes involved being prosecuted for misdemenours (sp?) and given community service orders or whatever. They totally deserve it. It simply goes against the grain to see her getting off completely as "the victim", when she's at least partially responsible for the problem.

What it comes down to for me is that, if you hand your bank card and PIN to some random stranger and get robbed, it doesn't make the thief less guilty, but it does make you an accessory to your own loss.

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

That's a lot of precautions for a porn stash. Your tastes in fap-material must be either very... interesting, or very boring.

I don't have a porn stash, that's just what I do with my ordinary hard drives. But somehow, comparing nekkid pics of yourself to an operating system and my browser history and savegames didn't seem particularly relevant!

Dafuq?

Ok, I can sorta understand blaming the victim, in the usual "you wouldn't leave your door unlocked" way...but how does that lead to feeling sorry for people who decided to go out of their way to commit crimes?

It's the same kind of feeling sorry that I'd have for them if there were 3 criminals involved and only 2 were going to get prosecuted. As noted above, I consider her to be less of a victim and more of an accessory. Maybe I'm just paranoid about data security, but I simply can't comprehend the levels of stupidity involved in handing private info over to a stranger if you can possibly avoid it. And given the kind of stuff happening in the world of data security, it's probably not paranoid.

Likewise, there's a very big difference between making your fortune out of making your private life public and wanting it kept private, and having stuff on a phone and wanting it kept private

Hyperbole is the grease that oils the wheels of debate. I'm well aware that this comparison is hyperbolic... a far better one would be somebody that put stuff into a private section of a social media site and had it leaked. It's just not as much fun as comparisons go.

 

[Legion]

As horrible as their actions were and however much they deserve to be locked up, I can't help feeling just a teensy bit sorry for them.

Sure, they couldn't have made a worse series of decisions if they tried, but it seems just a smidge unfair that they're going to carry the whole can for this debacle. Personally, I feel pretty strongly that the person who put those photo's on the phone and then handed it in deserves at least a portion of the head-smack that's coming on this one.

In no way am I excusing their actions but this strikes me as being remarkably similar to celebrities who scream about privacy while, at the same time, parading their private lives for all to see.

If I kept a porn-stash... and I'm certainly not saying I do!... I'd keep it on a remote HD, which would get formatted, written over and then formatted again before I passed it on to anyone else!

If you want your private stuff kept private, you're responsible for taking steps to keep it that way.

Your comparison to celebrities is way off base. This lady wasn't flaunting her private life, nor was she a celebrity in the public spotlight. She was a a woman that wanted to transfer her data to a new phone, and these guys decided that rather than just doing their job, they'd go snooping through said data.

I'm just having trouble seeing how you can blame her because these guys broke the law. It's an extreme example, but what you're saying is along the same premise as saying that a girl in a miniskirt and tank top that gets raped deserves it because "She shouldn't have been dressed like that." Just as you seem to be saying this girl deserved to have her naked pictures stolen just because she had them on her phone. Or, I don't know, perhaps the employees could have done their job which is to mind their own business and just transfer her data like she asked...it's not like she went in there trying to seduce the employees, HOPING they'd find her pictures. She's not famous, so it wasn't a publicity stunt. Your argument makes no sense, Mr. Lawyer.

Neither does yours, seeing as they clearly stated several times that the people committed a crime, and deserve to be locked up.

There is a difference between saying something is somebodies fault, and suggesting that if they had decided to be more careful they could have avoided the trouble in the first place. It isn't condoning crimes, it is encouraging people to look out for themselves.

I am not sure why some people find this so difficult to grasp.