Citing a Business Insider report, the culprit allegedly is a hardware engineer named Jason Sylvain 41-year-old. He reportedly tried to break into robot security at a robot startup named Knightscope.
According to the police force Mountain View, California, Knightscope gush robot similar to the smart robot R2-D2 in Star Wars. The robot is named K5, a security robot that is five times high and weighs 300 pounds or about 136 kg.
The security robot is actually designed to be around campuses, malls, and companies. The goal is to scan the crowded area with the camera and call the security if something suspicious happens.
Apparently, one of the K5 robots allegedly been burglarized by hardware engineers, last Wednesday. The police said they came to the Knightscope office at 8:15 pm and found a drunk employee was torturing the robot. The robot is known to be doing his job as a security guard in the office parking lot in Mountain View when the incident took place.
"The robot has done what it's supposed to do," said Vice President of Marketing and Sales Knightscope Stacy Dean Stephens was quoted as saying by the NY Post.
He also said the torture of the robot was detected and immediately reported to the security. "The alarm on the robot rang, the suspect tried to escape from the scene and was detained by one of my colleagues, until the police arrived at the scene," Stephens said.
Police said Sylvain smelled of alcohol when arrested. "When we arrived, we met with Sylvain and as we talked to him, he looked confused, his eyes red and the smell of alcohol," said a police spokesman.
Fortunately, the robot only has a slight scratch. "The robot has recovered from his injuries and returned to patrol the office and keep employees safe," Stephens said.
Stephens also added, Sylvain admitted his mode of doing it because as an engineer himself wanted to test the robot's security.
