Karma on the way

[DTro]

and not the good kind.

Had they played their cards right they could've got a nice reward or perhaps a couple tickets to a football game. Now they look like real jerks.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian is the apparent victim of an extortion attempt over his BlackBerry, according to a civil lawsuit unsealed in federal court late Thursday.

Berrian said he left his BlackBerry on an automatic teller machine in Las Vegas in October, according to a complaint filed Jan. 6 but kept out of the public eye. After about 20 minutes, Berrian said, he went back to the ATM, but the BlackBerry was gone.

A couple months later, Berrian said, he began receiving e-mails and telephone calls asking him if he'd lost his BlackBerry. After that, he asked his business manager to find the people who had his device. During negotiations for the return of the BlackBerry, the attorney said in court documents, a man and woman demanded $30,000 for its return. The woman reportedly is the one who found Berrian's device.

Failure to do so, they allegedly threatened, would result in them selling the BlackBerry to the "highest bidder." According to the court documents, the man is Ronald Jones and the woman is Clarice Lankford, both California residents.

U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen has issued a temporary restraining order in the case, forbidding Jones and Lankford from "selling, offering to sell, transferring, attempting to transfer, downloading, importing, exporting, advertising, promoting and/or distributing any data and/or other information obtained from Plaintiff's BlackBerry device, including, but not limited to, any and all Secure Digital cards used with the device."

The order also bars them from destroying the BlackBerry.

In the complaint, Berrian said he stores financial and account information and his Social Security number on the device. He said he also has access codes to his residences, photos of his young daughter and "other personal photographs and video of Berrian and third parties not intended for public distribution." Berrian is not married.

According to Berrian's attorney, Lankford returned the BlackBerry on Jan. 19.

James Walsh • 612-673-7428

[spearchucker]

That is one of the downfalls of the "do everything" smartphones. Too much information that is easily lost.

[nonteepical]

looks like berrian can't hold on to anything.

[FISHINGURU]

Thats forsure, he drops anything between the numbers.

[harvey lee]

It's too bad that so many people are worthless. Why can't they simply give the phone back?

[Steve Foss]

It's too bad that so many people are worthless. Why can't they simply give the phone back?

They gave the phone back on Jan. 19, according to the quoted story.

[Stcloudangler]

I think "simply" was the key word there Steve...

[DTro]

It's too bad that so many people are worthless. Why can't they simply give the phone back?

They gave the phone back on Jan. 19, according to the quoted story.

Well yeah, AFTER they were court ordered.

They are scum for holding it hostage and trying to extort money. The phone is not theirs, give it back. Like I said....Karma

[Steve Foss]

Ah, got it.

[harvey lee]

That's correct, they did not do that on their own.