College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It 851
mngdih writes with this excerpt from Wired:
"A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do. It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back ... His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals saying it's legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect's car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway. ... 'We have all the information we needed,' they told him. 'You don't need to call your lawyer. Don't worry, you're boring.'"
OUCH (Score:5, Funny)
When the FBI tells you that you are boring...just WOW!
America (Score:5, Funny)
* Some conditions apply. See in-country for details. Void where prohibited. No cash value. Offer expires September 11, 2001.
Re:OUCH (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah... makes me doubt the story... i might be reduce to R'ing TFA.
Wasted opportunity (Score:3, Funny)
What a wasted opportunity to attach it to a bus.
Re:OUCH (Score:3, Funny)
No kidding...especially the same day they raided an auction house [csmonitor.com] to recover the fingerprint card of a guy who has been dead for like 25 years
Re:Dont' call your lawyer? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dont' call your lawyer? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wasted opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Or to the chief's car
In Soviet America... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dont' call your lawyer? (Score:1, Funny)
Is it Ghostbusters?
Re:Dont' call your lawyer? (Score:5, Funny)
Ghostbusters?
Re:OUCH (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah... makes me doubt the story... i might be reduce to R'ing TFA.
I did that once, Slashdot was never the same again. Please don't make the same mistake, you have your whole life ahead of you still.
it's okay if the car is/was in your driveway? (Score:4, Funny)
I think if I found someone crawling under my car in my unfenced, ungated driveway, placing some device on my car, I'd be cueing up the track of a shotgun being pumped on my MP3 player, then playing it real loud for the perp under my car.
Re:Wasted opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Boring = FBI off the hook? (Score:3, Funny)
Or better, call in the police bomb squad because someone has "attached an electronic device to your car", get the government to blow it up for you :)
Re:America (Score:1, Funny)
Yeah it cost a buck-o-five if I remember right.
Re:Replant the device (Score:4, Funny)
I was just thinking of tossing it in the back of the garbage truck when it comes by to collect my garbage. Wading through my boy's old diapers would be an appropriate quid pro quo.
Re:What happens if you destroy it? (Score:4, Funny)
I think I'd send the device "Next Day UPS Air", addressed to Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. You know, make it interesting.
Re:Not hard to guess why he was being looked at (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Replant the device (Score:5, Funny)
Third, wouldn’t they have seen it coming?
Top Ten Things to do with FBI Tracking Devices (Score:5, Funny)
9. Place it on a train.
8. Place it on a freighter carrying electronics to be recycled in China.
7 Place it in your carry-on luggage and watch the fun at airport security.
6. Dial 911 and tell them you've found a bomb on your car. Invite TV news crews to come watch the fun.
5. Give it to your local ACLU and tell them to make the FBI prove it's theirs before handing it back.
4. Pretend you don't know it's there, and drive to as many Tea Party events as possible.
3. Build an autonomous flying drone capable of carrying it and program it to fly around in circles all day.
2. Hack its logic to input arbitrary coordinates and make virtual visits to places you've always wanted to see.
1. Pretend it's not there and go on a tour of the most patriotic American landmarks to demonstrate your loyalty to the United States.
Re:Tailing your car? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What happens if you destroy it? (Score:3, Funny)
Overwhelm (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What happens if you destroy it? (Score:1, Funny)
the world is their oyster, and you are nothing but a prawn
FTFY
Re:What happens if you destroy it? (Score:3, Funny)
If there's anything I've ever learned from being part of a large government organization, it's that you learn that being part of a large government organization teaches you that learn what it's like to be part of a large government organization, learning.
True story.
Re:Finders Keepers? (Score:5, Funny)
Better yet, park your car outside a government building and then call the police saying there is a suspicious device attached to your car. Hey, you did the right, thing, right? How can they fault you? You didn't put it there, don't know what it is or what it does, so you called the police. I mean really, the thing looks like a transmitter attached to a pipe bomb, what would you think? The resulting traffic jam and media coverage of shutting down part of town while the city's bomb squad recovers an FBI tracking device (or, possibly blows up your car just to be safe) would be pretty embarrassing for the FBI. Would kinda suck to loose the car though.
Re:Finders Keepers? (Score:3, Funny)
why not attach it to meteorological balloon? ....
That should alert agents instantly
("wow, this guy drove up to 100,000 feet! amazing what those SUVs could do")