FBI allegedly caught using GPS to spy on student

CNN ^ | 10-08-2010 | Kim Zetter

[Stayfrosty]

(Wired) -- A California student got a visit from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online.

[MHGinTN]

Attach it to a Cincinnati cab.

[monkeyshine]

Well he must have been doing something illegal to warrant being tracked by the FBI. If you aren’t doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. /sarcasm

[Political Junkie Too]

I'm confused...

Was the FBI "allegedly caught using GPS" or were they "caught allegedly using GPS?"

Is there doubt about being caught or doubt about using GPS?

-PJ

[Lurker]

Send it UPS back to FBI HQ in DC.

[huldah1776]

If it had been me, I would never have found it. So what was his friend looking for, and why did they look in the first place?

[Max_850]

My thought exactly!

The entertainment of thinking of them tracking and retrieving it would almost offset being pissed off at finding it on my car.

[Politicalmom]

I’m having difficulty getting worked up over surveillance of possible Moslem terrorists.

[Sakity Yaks]

"You don't need to call your lawyer...."

If somebody from the government says that, then you definitely need to call your lawyer now.

[Stayfrosty]

My father told me that a friend of his used to fly a private cargo plane full of Television sets to Mexico. His long time “friend” was a DEA agent and thought that perhaps his buddy maybe running drugs into or from Mexico so they loaded the bird with a tracking device and electronic bugs. This pilot found the device, and ended up putting it into the DEA agents car unbeknownst to him and it took several months for the agents to figure out they had been had! True story.

[Charles Martel]

If I ever found one on my car I’d photograph it and then take it to the nearest truck stop. Let whomever think I was heading across country.

That was my first thought as well. It might be even better, though, to find the nearest GSA fleet office and go stick it on a vehicle fitted with those G-prefix government license plates. Or a mail delivery vehicle (they have large tractor-trailer rigs too).

It'd definitely be better to turn it back on the feds than to just stick it on some other unsuspecting citizen's vehicle.

[PAR35]

Looks like old technology. They must have used all the new devices on Republicans.

Or more likely, someone at the FBI wanted it to be found.

[maine yankee]

If I ever found one on my car I’d photograph it and then take it to the nearest truck stop. Let whomever think I was heading across country

---

On a truck going into Canada.

[Sakity Yaks]

I’d drive into a tunnel with it and drop it off halfway.

[Marty62]

Since the FBI says this is an on going investigation.

May I ask why everyone is taking the word of a Muslim traveling to the Mid-east?

I mean come-on folks, how many INNOCENT people check their car every morn for an FBI bug?

Let’s get real.

[Stonewall Jackson]

There was a sheep rancher in Wyoming a few years ago that was having trouble with a wolf that was going after his flock. He’d called the Fish&Wildlife folks, but they weren’t going to do anything, so he shot the wolf, removed its collar, and put it on a semi that was stopped at a rest stop on I-80. The Fish&Wildlife folks wigged out when they started tracking their wolf doing 75mph down the interstate.

[Ben Mugged]

My daughter had a pen-pal from Turkey (assigned by the school). After exchange of a few letters, her pen pal sent her a bracelet. The only problem, he wrapped it in an old shotgun shell box. The trace black powder set off all sort of alarms. An investigator showed up at our front door and demanded to see her. Once the investigator saw she was 6 years old, he apologized, gave her her bracelet and left.

[The Comedian]

Based on FBI precedent, he's lucky they didn't shoot his mother and burn his house to the ground.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Pan_Yan]

Ping

[KarlInOhio]

Leave it in an unattended package in an airport or, even better, in the lobby of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Sprinkle a little potassium nitrate on it just to set off any chemical sensors. Then the FBI's bomb squad can blow up their own tracking device. A nice little "Circle of Life" ending.

[Moonman62]

warrantless tracking on an American Citizen. Will the anti-patriot act objectors object?

The courts so far are supporting this type of tracking without warrants.