iPad submerged for five years leads to the arrest of three wanted men

Through an interesting and surprising series of events, a six-year-long investigation in London was resolved thanks to an iPad that was submerged in the River Thames for over five years. It became a key piece of evidence in the case as it allowed the police to get call data of three wanted men involved in a “web of international organized crime.” The three were responsible for shooting another notorious robber and also stealing antiques, along with other crimes.

In November of last year, a police officer was investigating the shore of the River Thames close to the O2 Arena using a metal detector. The officer came upon a buried iPad Mini that proved to be a key piece of evidence in solving a case that they had been struggling with for six years. The iPad contained a Vodafone SIM card that officials were able to link to three men by salvaging cell data. These men were responsible for shooting and paralyzing Paul Allen in 2019 and stealing 14th-century Chinese Ming Dynasty antiques from a museum.

Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne, and Daniel Kelly were the three men responsible for these crimes. Kelly owned the recovered iPad Mini that had calls made to the Ahearne brothers, and the same SIM card was also linked to GPS tracking devices found when two of the three were arrested in a month after the shooting of Paul Allen. The full story can be found on BBC’s website. 

London police believe that the submerged iPad was the key to it all. Even in its buried state, the iPad was helpful enough to allow officials to salvage call data from the SIM card.