Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back

If it had been on my car, it would have been; "Finders Keepers" and "Possesion is 9/10 of the law", etc. They want the device back, they can go to court for it. In the mean time, they could bid for it on eBay like everyone else. I wonder how much something like that would go for.

reply to post by VictorVonDoom


This kind of thing just drives me crazy. Especially when I know that there's technology out there that is far more advanced... not to mention more discreet in it's ability to stalk a target. I see devices like this being used more as a diversion. Something used to help get their paranoia all blown out of proportion... before they really get down to business and start messing with their minds.

reply to post by FlourGirl


During WW2 the allies had broken the German enigma and so they could read all the invasion plans. Rather than risk exposing the fact that they had broken the encryption, the allies would always create a reasonable doubt as to the source of the intelligence. For example if a German division was getting ready to move, the allies would send a recon plane at just the right time to "accidentally discover" this. That way the troops would think they got caught by a random plane sighting rather than a break in the coded communications.

I love all the internet posturing. 'I'd fight them in court or send it to multiple countries!' If this ever happens to you I would suggest not doing any of that. Get a lawyer to contact the FBI and give them back the tracker. No sense getting yourself thrown in jail or fined into poverty.

I'm not going to give the FBI the benefit of the doubt here, but I'm not just going to blindly believe what some kid on reddit either. No doubt he found the device and all that but do we really know anything about him? There could very well be good reason for the FBI to be watching him. This automatic fear response on ATS is getting weird. The guys background set of flags in my head right away and not because of his ethnicity.

The FBI was lucky.
It looks like a bomb to me.
I would have called a friend that is a Navy EOD to dispose of it.

He just loves to blow things up and unless it has a tag on it saying it belongs to the FBI he would have had fun at the FBIs expense.

reply to post by abrowning


Good advice. Get a lawyer right away and make sure everything gets put on record and is handled properly. That way if something bad happens further down the line... this guy has his fanny covered.

I have sen many videos bout 911 of which many seek to explain the reason for 911 and I have heard many different resons.

It is very strange that one reason I havent read is that what we have seen happen to individual rights in America and elsewhere since 911 is itself the reason, i.e, create not just an external ghost enemy but an internal one as well. This then creates the "need" to strip citzens of their human and legal rights, to make it easier to control as many individuals as possibl which in turn makes it easier to control the country and so on until it beocmes easier to control the world.

An eample; In my state there is a piece of legislation called someting like "The Explosive and Dangeous Goods Act" Under this Act a dangerous goods inspector has more rights to break down your house if necessary, to investigage claims that you have explosives on your property. They also have the right to question you and you have no right NOT to answer questions to which the answers are self incriminating.

Such inspectors, in this way have more rights than the police they bring with them. Police that accompany such inspectors find themselves in a situation where they are take orders from the dangeorus goods inspectors who are civillians.

It was never like this before 911.This whole Act has been rewritten and now has a heavy focus on search, question and detain whereas before it was about storage and use of explosives.

Very handy little bit of legislation to the goverment now if the police or dangeorus goods inspectors pull you up on the side of the road and see something that resemles Amonioum Nitrate granuals in your car.

cheers

reply to post by ANNED


You would have called a friend in the Navy to dispose of something you thought was a bomb? Good idea. Let's wait for the guy that has ABSOLUTELY no jurisdiction to come out, secure a huge area alone and take care of everything for you.

If this happens to you don't act like a complete moron and CONTACT THE POLICE if you think it's a bomb. Man people on this site have delusions of grandeur.

I am amazed at the quantity of people condoning the FBI's action ... why don't you all just tag yourselves with some GPS microchip and just hand it over to the FBI?

You will make your country safer! really !

What about citizen's rights , OH mighty land of freedom?

Wow, what a thing to have discovered on your car!

I don't get why the FBI went and asked for it back. Seems they'd want to cover that up instead of admit to it? Talk about a blown operation...

reply to post by Intelearthling


Do people just post, without reading the article ALL the time? The article made it very clear, that he took it in for maintenence, and the mechanic found the device. He noticed a wire and followed it.

Let me guess, this is the part of the story, that you choose not to believe. Why only this one part?? Why not just randomly pick 3 or 4 more? I am gunning for the friend... The article DOESNT say that he ISN'T a Hamas operative!!!

Skipped the last few comments as a lot of bickering over "labels" and the bigot lots seem to have and pointing fingers...

This is a 2 sided story: One the one hand, we have "preservation of individual rights" and small governments. On the other, we have "domestic and foreign threats" which, these days with current technology, is getting ever harder to trace and track yet also easier.

But to do a lot of what they need to do to get the information, it must be coerced or forced or "eavesdropped". So... we are torn. Give up our rights of freedom (speech, religion, bear arms, etc) and risk losing governmental checks/balances/oversight OR we keep our freedom ensuring government checks/balances/oversight but risk foreign attacks (and even domestic, some).

That is the price of freedom; keep rights with risk or give up rights with no risk..... I, personally, would rather risk terrorist attacks than government agents bugging and tracking every member, legal and not, entering the US; it's too uncomfortable and miserable an existence, plus, the poll on our economy (what, with paying agents to listen, papers to record, computers to maintain, ETC) so I'd rather be blown up in a plane than some random people listening to my conversation to be sure i'm not plotting against them when they should be listening on others to be sure they're not blowing US up...

This is why we NEED, not necessarily, a NEW government, but one with a more transparent policy and more oversight/watchdog groups. So that our great government can continue doing its job protecting and providing without temptation of invading our rights/freedoms...

So, yeah I feel for the kid; his rights, seemingly, violated even though no warrants signed by certified judges; only because of his race and relations overseas in an area highly profiled/labeled as "terrorist" and "Anti-American"... but at the same time, what IF he was involved? This is why, you Americans (i was too young to vote), gave your rights away...was for THIS so IF he was involved and planning something, THANK the government they violated rights to save your skin.

As for the FBI asking for their "property" back, I'd demand an explanation as to how they lost it in my car. The great most wise and powerful powers that be really must be broke (LOL).



Keep us updated and anybody know actual penal codes/laws for eavesdropping/investigating suspects?? Would be helpful so we can, hopefully, ourselves, ascertain whether this is valid or not.

Yahoo

Saw this today on Yahoo News. I find it disturbing these kind of things go on in this country. From the article:

George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr said the issue boils down to public vs. private. As long as the GPS devices are attached to vehicles on public roads, Kerr believes the U.S. Supreme Court will decide no warrant is needed. To decide otherwise, he said, would ignore a long line of previous 4th Amendment decisions allowing for warrantless searches as long as they're conducted on public property.

This guy is just ridiculous. Did this guy forget that even while on a public road, this man's vehicle is still private property? This whole business of warrantless wiretapping is facist. If you don't have enough, or good enough, evidence to convince a judge to sign a warrant, then you should probably go do some more real police work to get that evidence.