NY Man Ousmane Bah Sues Apple After ‘Facial Recognition’ Wrongly ID’s Him As Store Thief

NEW YORK, NY. (THECOUNT) — Ousmane Bah, of New York, has filed a one billion dollar lawsuit against Apple after he was falsely arrested for stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise from Apple stores in Boston, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York.

Bah, 18, says that another man who was busted after stealing $1,200 worth of Apple products from a store Boston gave employees an ID with Bah’s name on it. The ID was believed to be Bah’s interim driver’s permit, which did not have his photograph.

Bah says that Apple programmed their facial recognition software to recognize the thief if he struck again, but never confirmed the man’s true identity and used his name in their system. Bah had no idea that another man had used his identity to rob the stores until he received a summons in the mail to appear in Boston municipal court, reports 939LiteFM.

He was taken in custody in November by the NYPD but was released when a detective reviewed the surveillance footage from the stores and realized Bah looked nothing like the perpetrator in the video. The charges against Bah were dropped in Massachusetts, Delaware, and New York. The case against him in New Jersey is still pending.

“[Bah] was forced to respond to multiple false allegations which led to severe stress and hardship in his life, and also significant damage to his positive reputation that he had put so much effort into upholding,” the lawsuit says.