According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, a man placed a few iPads for sale on Craigslist for more than they’re worth and had one stolen. Instead of simply calling 911 first and letting the police handle the matter, the seller, using one of the two guns he was legally carrying on his person at the time, allegedly fired a shot. Both the seller who fired the gun and later the iPad thief were arrested.
From the criminal complaint:
On Sunday, April 3, 2011 at approximately 10:54 p.m., Jesse Jay Cherrier, date of birth 12/8/1980, dialed 911 and reported that an iPad had just been stolen from him. An officer met with Cherrier at a gas station in the City of West St. Paul, Dakota County, Minnesota, to take Cherrier’s report. Cherrier reported that he had listed four iPads for sale on the Internet for $925 to $1,000, and an unknown male had contacted him to purchase one of the iPads. Cherrier and the prospective purchaser sat in Cherrier’s SUV in a gas station parking lot on Robert Street discussing the sale of the iPad. The prospective purchaser took the iPad from where it was resting on the center console of Cherrier’s vehicle and jumped out of the vehicle with the iPad, running west along Marie Avenue. Cherrier stated he chased the prospective purchaser on foot but had not been able to catch him. An eyewitness spoke with another officer and reported that she had seen a man run from an SUV, and saw the driver chase the man westbound on Marie Avenue. The witness reported that the driver took out a gun and shot it down Marie Avenue in the direction of the man he was chasing. When Cherrier was asked if he had any weapons in his possession, he responded that he did, and that he had fired a shot in the air as the prospective purchaser ran away with his iPad. Cherrier was placed under arrest. Cherrier had a Springfield Armory XD 0.40 handgun in a holster on his right hip, and a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 0.38 handgun in his right coat pocket. A spent shell casing from the Springfield Armory handgun was found about 100 feet from a High School on Marie Avenue. Cherrier had a State of Minnesota Permit to Carry a Pistol, Reference #110031938 in his wallet.
Do you find it strange that someone would list four iPads for more than sticker price and then head to the sale carrying two guns on their person? Do you think they were expecting to confront potential thieves with gunfire? Why do you suppose the seller/gunman decided to use the gun in his holster as opposed to the one in his pocket? Do you believe the seller/gunman’s story that he shot it into the air rather than at the thief running away? Is this the problem with gun carry law; people attempting to do the job of the police?
Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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April 26th, 2012 at 7:55 am
Would the police have come quickly enough had Mr. C. called them right after the thief left? I doubt it. While I support conceal carry, Mr. C. was foolish to use the gun this way. Of course he was also a fool to list the iPads at above-market rates.
April 26th, 2012 at 8:07 am
The perfect storm, the worlds hottest tech item the day after Apple reports massive profits, and a semi castle doctrine shooting in a non castle doctrine state, maybe Minnesota will get 24/7 CNN coverage now?
April 26th, 2012 at 8:19 am
Maybe the iPads had a bunch of expensive software loaded on to them that the gun guy pirated and was trying to move at what would otherwise be less than market value.
Either way it is weird if you think about it (and I have). So you have a stranger sitting next to you and a bunch of expensive objects in between you. The guy grabs one of them while simultaneously opening up the passenger door and the guy can’t just grab his shirt?
It begs the question, why did the gun guy let a guy get in his car without a shirt on?
Also, If you are bringing a couple of guns to this transaction, I would think you would want to make sure the potential thief would know about the guns to make him a bit less likely to try to steal the iPad. Clearly the gun guy is out of shape from reading the excerpt above.
It begs the question. Is it possible for an iPadless person without a shirt to know enough about the law so as to not be scared to steal from a fat guy with two guns because it is still against the law to get shot for stealing?
This one really has me befuddled. We may never know the answers to these important questions.
April 26th, 2012 at 9:00 am
Evolution and natural selection are laws of natures are magnificent. Sometimes when we’re privilaged to see them at work we should all just step back and admire
April 26th, 2012 at 10:50 am
The most expensive iPad is $829.00 with 64GB and a 3-4G cellular add-on. So the pricing makes no sense.
My guess is that they were stolen and this guy was fencing them through CL. He told the cops that they were worth $900.00 to cover his ass so that it looked like it was a legit deal.
But, then again, why would you call the cops? Maybe he needed to call them because he was shooting at someone and there was a witness and he needed a cover story perhaps?
April 26th, 2012 at 10:51 am
Sorry the link to the original complaint was broken as reported by a fellow reader. All fixed up now. Thanks!
April 26th, 2012 at 11:42 am
The report says last April so it could have been a different pricing than Nurd52 points out (4G is only available on the ‘new’ iPad). I’m not sure of pricing at the time. Don’t get me wrong I’m not defending the sale as it is very suspicious to me but also remember that just a few years ago, people were selling preloaded iPods on eBay for way about retail so the end user didn’t need a computer and it would have what they wanted on it.
Overall [imo] it sounds like a deal of another kind with an smokescreen paper trail (the iPad sale) gone bad.
April 26th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
DaveF, I didn’t notice the 2011 but the prices would have been astronomical even then.
April 26th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Actually if you scroll down to the very end of the document, you’ll see that it wasn’t filed until this year.
I’m guessing that this guy has other legal issues and this is just adding on to that.
April 26th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Filed this year, but the incident was still last year (hardware and prices are from the incident description).
http://huff.to/KexUpw shows that the top of the line iPad 2 was $829 at release. Granted it’s an assumption as to which model he was selling all I’m trying to say is that the price isn’t that far off of the cost of a new iPad 2 plus a baggy of whatever else he was planning to sell that having a gun with him could’ve been assumed as well.
Just smells like something else went on underneath the officers nose that he did or didn’t notice.
April 26th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
I would say the gun guy is very lucky to be a bad shot. He would be in a whole different world of trouble had he actually shot the guy in the back and killed him.
April 26th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Or if he had instead shot someone nearby.
April 26th, 2012 at 3:43 pm
As noted in the Complaint the gunman was arrested on felony charges but he does not yet seem to have a Criminal Complaint:
April 27th, 2012 at 10:08 am
Dakota County Case # 19HA-CR-11-1091. Looks like he entered a guilty plea and got 2 years supervised probation and a fine. Also spent 3 days in jail. Probably before posting bail. Pursuant to 609.13, due to the sentence entered, his conviction is considered a gross misdemeanor.
April 27th, 2012 at 10:10 am
Sorry: My above post refers to the weapons charge against Jesse Jay Cherrier.
April 27th, 2012 at 10:13 am
You’re right. I don’t know how I missed it. I must have spelled his name wrong when I searched: http://www.lazylightning.org/DakotaComplaints/old/10892.txt
April 27th, 2012 at 10:14 am
I missed it the first time when i spelled Jesse with an ie at the end.
April 27th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
It’s interesting to me that shooting a gun in a way that can endanger others is a felony (which I’m fine with), but drunk driving, which also endangers people, is just a misdemeanor.
April 27th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Tim,
More legislators drove/drive drunk than did those firing handguns in public spaces not intended for gun fire.
April 27th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Well, that’s certainly true. One is something people with influence and money do, and one isn’t.