Gadget calls the police after listening to man 'beat and threaten to murder' girlfriend
'The unexpected use of this new technology to contact emergency services has possibly helped save a life'
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Your support makes all the difference.A man who allegedly beat his girlfriend and threatened to kill her has been arrested after a “smart speaker” alerted police.
She suffered facial injuries during the attack but refused medical attention, and her child was unharmed.
Police say the gadget overheard the incident and recognised one of the alleged attacker’s remarks as a command, and proceeded to call 911.
However, there’s confusion around the identity of the device, which was initially claimed to be a Google Home.
Eduardo Barros and his girlfriend, who has not been identified, had been house-sitting in Tijeras, a village in New Mexico on 2 July.
The 28-year-old allegedly got angry over a text message his girlfriend had received, and accused her of cheating on him before waving a gun and threatening to kill her. He then hit her in the face with the gun, says Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office.
At one point during the dispute, he is alleged to have asked her: “Did you call the sheriff?”
A smart speaker in the house understood this as an instruction and called the police, said Felicia Romero, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department Deputy.
The device in question was initially believed to be a Google Home, but Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office then said it was an Alexa-enabled gadget.
“In the 911 recording the victim can be heard yelling ‘Alexa, call 911’”, it says.
However, Amazon has told Albuquerque Journal that Alexa can’t actually call 911.
“Barros told her she was not going anywhere and he was going to kill her,” reads an arrest warrant affidavit, reports the New York Post.
“When 911 called her phone, Barros saw the caller ID and threw [her] to the floor. Barros then kicked her while on the ground at least 10 times in the face and stomach. Barros told [the victim] he could not believe the cops had been called and he was not going back to prison and that she knew he was a felon. [The victim] stated she thought she was going to be killed or shot.”
Smart home technology is growing increasingly popular and, though it potentially helped save a life in this particular incident, there are fears about just how much they can learn about us, and how they can be used for advertising purposes..
In April, for instance, Burger King attempted to hijack people’s Google Home voice assistants by releasing a TV advert asking, “Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?” However, the stunt backfired.
“The unexpected use of this new technology to contact emergency services has possibly helped save a life,” said Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III. “This amazing technology definitely helped save a mother and her child from a very violent situation.”
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