A 28-year-old named Eduardo Barros got arrested last week for assaulting his girlfriend while they were housesitting near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Luckily she’s okay, and he’ll be spending some time in jail now.
But the crazy part is how the cops found out about it. Apparently a VIRTUAL ASSISTANT called them . . . either an Amazon Echo, or a Google Home device.
The details are kind of sketchy. The original police report said a connected device in the house overheard the guy yell, “Did you call the sheriff’s.” But it thought he said, “CALL the sheriff.” So it did.
The report mentioned Amazon’s Alexa, and ALSO talked about a Google Home device. So now the cops say they’re not sure what type of device it was.
The other issue is neither of those devices can call 911 like that unless you’ve set it up first. Alexa got a new feature in May that lets you make calls. But you have to put the number in your contacts and sync it with your phone.
It’s possible the people they were housesitting for set it up to call the sheriff’s department in case there was an emergency. Or she might have used Siri on her phone, which CAN call 911.
The important part is the cops got there in time, because the boyfriend had a GUN and was threatening to kill her before they showed up. (Mashable / NY Post)
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