Take your car for a tune up, and they find a hidden FBI GPS tracker

General General Discussion
1

How this is not a violation of the 4th Amendment, I don’t know, but how would feel if you found a hidden FBI GPS tracker on your car?

Isn’t that great!? Call me crazy, but if LEO regard you as boring, then your privacy rights have already been violated. AND YOU GET THREATENED IF YOU DONT RETURN IT!!!

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/08/report-student-finds-gps-tracker-stuck-to-car-fbi-asks-for-it/

Report: Student finds GPS tracker stuck to car, FBI asks for it back

Afifi, who is an American citizen born here in the States with an Egyptian father, brought his Lincoln LS sedan to a mechanic who put it up on a lift. There, underneath the car, was an odd cylindrical tube connected to a device with an antenna. It wasn’t a bomb, but it was a tracking device.

2

Seventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals has declared that it’s not actually a “search” of your car, therefore no 4th amendment violation.

As to having to return it, well, if they can prove that I found it then I suppose I’m on the hook for it.

3

It is pretty ridiculous. I also love it when they say, "“We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”

OK. Make it “more difficult for me,” then. I haven’t committed any crimes, so I’ll play along just to learn what that means, especially when you tell me I’m “boring.”

You could have some fun, though, if you found it and put it somewhere else. Like on a local LE vehicle, or an ice cream truck, or some slimy politician’s car.

4

I’ll send it on an all expenses paid trip around the country, via UPS.

5

There’s an idea. Ship it back to the FBI … at their field office in Outer Mongolia.

Hey, I returned it to them, right?

6

WHAT…the FBI stripping U.S. citizens of liberties, no way:eek:

This is straight up S.O.P. for the G men…maybe they should put those damn trackers to an actual good use and give em to the big boys(CIA) to use in foreign operations and such abroad.

I must shut up now as this particular issue gets me going totally bonkers.

7

Post deleted because people obviously care more about political correctness, rather than our country’s direction.

8

Oh yeah, because lets throw away civil liberties at the sake of “oh well it’ll NEVER happen to me” situations. Right?!

9

First they came for the Muslims…

10

I doubt they installed the device on his vehicle simply because he may, or may not be a muslim. There is not enough info into the back story to make an educated decision on why they may be tracking “Afifi”.

Whatever the “unidentified agent” told him or anyone else, it is irrelevent. Did you expect them to tell him exactly why he was being tracked?

11

Looks bad in press to “harass” this poor US citizen college student (we think…we don’t know, though). I’ll bet it would have looked worse to be harassing a poor US citizen United States Army Major.

12

Cough. . .Patriot Act. . .cough. :eek:

If you think that is bad you should see the latest toys from DARPA.

It was amatuer night for the FBI.

13

Statements like this leave little doubt in my mind that this country is lost.

14

I wonder how many of our fellow great citizens even know what DARPA is…and you make an excellent point, I would would bet heavy on the fact that if a Spook had run this operation we would not be discussing this topic. Every night is amateur night in the FBI…par for the course

15

You don’t need to plant a physical GPS device to track someones whereabouts. Just sayin’ :wink:

16

I would just say its a tracking device cant you find it ? I thought it was something else and threw it away !!!

better yet stick it on a truck or bus or something

17

Call me crazy, but I don’t believe a word of it.

B_C

18

aren’t there counter-devices available that detect static electricity and the transmitted signal that these GPS/audio/video spying devices emit?

19

Yeah, it’s not like this guy displayed actual behavior (aside from being muslim that is) that would be cause for concern or anything. :rolleyes:

Perhaps the student did as well (in which case this should still require a warrant). But that doesn’t seem to be the point some here are trying to make.

20

Its so wonderful I can’t talk about a law (TX Penal Code 9.31 Section C) without threat of being banned yet we can say things like this.