Story Archive

Sleeping Sentinel

When a man in Washington D.C. was shot, witnesses named a suspect. Yet that suspect had a GPS tracking device attached to his leg which showed he was at home, a mile away, at the time of the killing. And, in fact, tracking records showed that “the device barely moved” ...for 72 hours. Yes, when police checked, the device was still attached to Quincy Green’s leg — it would have alerted them if it had been tampered with — but the leg wasn’t attached to Quincy Green: he simply removed his prosthetic leg and used a spare one to get around untracked. “I don’t understand how someone could put this device on a prosthetic leg,” said D.C. Police Sgt. Matthew Mahl. A spokesman for Sentinel Services, the company that provides the tracking devices, said the technician hadn’t realized Green’s leg is artificial, and didn’t follow procedures. Green, 44, who was on release pending his trial for an earlier gun crime, has been charged with murder. (RC/Washington Post) ...His defense won’t have a leg to stand on.