George Hotz, (aka “Geohot”), the 22-year-old hacker who happened to be the first person to jailbreak the iPhone and PlayStation 3, has been arrested for possession of marijuana.
He was driving with friends on his way to the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas to discuss “The Final Frontier of Reverse Engineering” when ZDNet reports that he had to stop at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca. Department of Homeland Security officers were using sniffer dogs to identify suspicious packages and luggage, and Hotz’s car was barked at.
Hotz is from California and has a marijuana license due to medical problems. The glove box of his car contained a quarter of an ounce of marijuana and “chocolate edibles” equivalent to less than an eighth of an ounce. Normally, that amount of weed in one"s possession would warrant confiscation and a warning, but Hotz was unlucky when the local sheriff valued it at $800, instead of the $15 Hotz allegedly paid for it. As a result, Hotz was then booked for a felony and posted $1,500 bail.
He has not (yet?) commented on the matter, though if he is really upset he could attempt to get the felony charge reversed as well as the bail refunded.
Image via Washington Times