iPod used to ID pedestrian in fatal accident

Travel > Pedestrian Accident

February 1, 2008

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Minneapolis, MI - Police in Minneapolis resorted to using an iPod in order to learn the identity of an Iowan man after he was struck and killed by a school bus last week.

Police had been trying to determine the man’s identify for two days after the accident which happened on Thursday. The only items in his possession at the time of the accident were an iPod and some keys.

Investigators with the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office decided to turn to Apple to help them identify the man. With help from Apple employees, they used the digital music player’s serial number to trace the device to Adam Ray Finley, 30, a former Des Moines man who moved to the Twin Cities five years ago.

Finley’s parents had not heard from their son in three days.

According to police, Adam Finley was struck and killed about 10 a.m. only two blocks away from his Minneapolis apartment.

Investigators asked the public for help to identify the victim and were awaiting results from an FBI fingerprint database when they took the iPod to an Apple outlet. An employee contacted Apple corporate security, and the serial number was traced to Finley’s product registration card.

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