Author here.

First, I was being self-deprecating, since I felt like the opposite of a badass iPhone tracker as we walked up and down this block.

Second, ethnicity is completely relevant to the story in that we were out of our element and quite visible prowling up and down the street with our laptop. The stares of the local residents confirmed this.

Third, other than the self-deprecation, I don't believe I said a single negative thing about anyone's race.

I'd been using it all day the day before, so its battery was already pretty low. So, it was bound to hit zero at some point.

Yeah, that's kind of what I think with every "You're glad you didn't get shot!" comment. It wasn't that bad a neighborhood. There was a kid's birthday party going on on the corner, for God's sake. And the number of thieves who are packing heat and ready to use it is relatively small. Not saying I wasn't acting a *mite* imprudently - we were just acting in the moment - but I still don't feel particularly foolish in retrospect.

Well, consider that 99% of the use cases are tracking it when you've just flat-out lost it somewhere. I totally did not expect to use it to track a thief. ...Until I did, that is.