Weathering the Broken Links

I wonder whether this was brilliant police work or just dumb-lucky police work?  At seeing the story title, I thought the police managed to positively match a specific remote to a specific TV via serial numbers and manufacturer records.  But no, it wasn’t that fancy:

Police recovered‡ a remote control from the victim. Acting on a tip, police went to Gust’s home and used the remote to turn on a 27-inch TV there.

Gust spent 20 days in jail after pleading guilty …

Brilliant? Imagine police talk their way into suspect’s home, demonstrate that the remote actually controls TV in order to scare suspect into admitting guilt and apprehend on that basis.  Backup plan, use functioning remote as probable cause for arrest, get warrant to test TV for rightful owner’s prints and/or expect the suspect fesses up when in custody.  After all he’s just a dumb punk…he wouldn’t know better than to keep his mouth shut and and can’t afford to hire an expensive lawyer to question the probable cause of the remote being used to establish probable cause (BTW, that many/most criminals aren’t this resourceful is actually a good thing, IMO).

OR

Dumb lucky? Police believe that when the remote control turns on the TV this proves the suspect has the exact TV that belongs to the victim and the guy, being dumb, admits it (ya know that you can control, if you want to call it that, a lot of TVs with anything that produces IR light, for example with a hacked mini maglite).

I really hope it’s the former.

‡ I know the word “recover” is standard law enforcement jargon for “to take from” a victim, witness, or suspect.   But, damn it, recover means to take back.  It was the victim’s.  The police didn’t recover it.  They borrowed it.  Or at least I hope the victim was able to recover it from the police.