American student finds GPS tracker stuck to car, FBI shows up

jatin

American student finds GPS tracker stuck to car, FBI shows up to reclaim its 'federal property' -- Engadget

They might come after me for posting this

adexkola

That is sooo 24

He should have stuck it onto a greyhound

I'm gonna check under my car now

R_Kelly

He sounds dodgy, get him into Gitmo.

Neutral

Yasir Afifi

Egyptian

I'd say it was the Feds being prudent.

utdalltheway

maybe.
except he's American. I'd be pissed off if they did it to me.

Excal

Yeah, someone of Arabic descent (who was apparently under federal surveillance) sticking something onto a bus. THAT would have gone over well...

Neutral

I was only joking mate...

Aboutreika18

The land of the free and all that bollocks...

zain

This was posted on reddit by the guy whose car it was on..was great reading..lol

mjs020294

There are millions of Muslims in the US, and I doubt many are being tracked by the FBI. Makes you wonder why he was targeted.

Many modern cars already have tracking devices installed, I know the entire GM range does. I get letters about services the day after I pass the mileage, fuckers are constantly getting data from my car. You can be tracked pretty easily via your cell phone as well. Sticking GPS devices on cars seems very 1980s to me.

Personally I would have stuck it on a truck or bus and be done with.

Sir Matt

Another article I read said that his friend had previously written some sort of blog post about "a mall and a bomb" or something like that. When the FBI asked the guy for the device, they told him they had people at the other guy's place to talk to him. They asked Afifi about the guy, the post, and if he knew anyone who had visited Yemen. He apparently supports two siblings in Egypt so that might have raised some questions since he was constantly sending money back.

Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back | Threat Level | Wired.com

mjs020294

I am sorry but the FBI were just doing their job IMO. Flags were raised and they need to investigate the guy. No innocent law abiding citizen would see it any other way.

Surely they have something a little more sophisticated than a device the size of a brick though. FFS, at least stick a orange label on it to warn the garage: “FBI Tracking Device, Please Leave in Place. Thank You Kindly”

Sultan

Guilty until proven innocent. Is this how you want the USA to roll?

Neutral

I don't know the details of this case, but I assume there are laws(Patriot Act) and such which have given Homeland Security/FBI etc, more powers to be pro-active.

Rightly or wrongly it appears, the mentality not just in the US, but a lot of the world now is

Better safe than sorry.

MikeUpNorth

The police or crime services investigating or monitoring someone doesn't mean an assumption of guilt. This kind of thing is fairly standard practice I'd imagine. When you hear those stories of 'plot foiled' and 'terrorist cell shut down' it's these kind of investigations that help to do it. Of course most people investigated are unlikely to be involved in criminal activity, and aren't prosecuted until there is sufficient evidence.

Grinner

Presumably the field agents sought some authority to stick it on in the first place. Just doing their jobs.

Sultan

Fair enough if there was any suspicions.

However, I'm not sure these days

mjs020294

No innocent until proven guilty BUT if flags are raised monitor them until you know they are innocent. We are not talking about shop lifters here are we. Can you image the outcry if he drove a car into Times Square and blew up a few dozens tourists after flags were raised.

Sultan

I hope the authorities got it right, which is sadly not very often these days...

If the guy is completely innocent, he will now likely sympathise with terrorists for the rest of his life. Another soul lost in the battle of hearts and minds.

mjs020294

If a law abiding citizen takes offense at the authorities taking due diligence I would be shocked. I was arrested and under suspicion for stuff in the past, made no difference to me they were just doing their jobs.

What are there eight million Muslims in the US? I doubt even 0.1% of them have been under investigation.

Sultan

The mindset of a minority group is somewhat different when they are wrongly accused or under suspicion. Victim mentality kicks in!

Redlambs

Why the fuck would you post on the internet about it in the first place?

If I found such tracking device, I'd definitely place it elsewhere first and document the evidence. Then I'd make sure a handful of people knew about it, with everything on written file and on memory sticks, including some not delivered the usual way.

Then, without a doubt, I'd leak the story and let it all play out.

mariachi-19

Thats actually how the inquisitorial system basically works.

Team Brian GB

This is where uber Republicans are hypocrites, they go on and on about how the constitution should be interpreted like it was written back in 1787 yet in a case like this and cases like it they would want very serious surveillance.

mjs020294

Anyone that harps on about something written nearly 250 years ago as if it is relevant and pertains to the modern world is retarded anyway IMO.

Team Brian GB

Touche.

barros

I would sale that on ebay.

mjs020294

Fed-ex it to the White House!

jatin

Its not the fact that they put it there that worries me, but their behaviour once they had been found out

What was the need to stay stuff like - "only to be pulled over by FBI agents who demanded the device back, threatening "We're going to make this much more difficult for you if you don't cooperate.""

and this " one agent who retrieved the device took the time to list off his favorite restaurants and even congratulated him on his new job."

that was not necessary and just shows stupid bullying and intimidation tactics

anything about now

I have a feeling those two agents would've gotten into big trouble if they somehow "lost track" of the device, or if it falls into bad guys' hands, etc. They probably felt they only needed to threaten the kid to get it back easily, having no idea it would be leaked out to the media like this.

Red Defence

Hmm, I take your point but perhaps it stands to reason that things would be made more difficult for a person under suspicion of some illegal activity if they didn't co-operate with the authorities who were investigating them. Makes sense to me anyway and probably in most cases what the FBI agents said wouldn't need to have been said, but from what I read here it obviously needed spelling out quite clearly to this lad.

We should also remember that it's the news media's take on this, so it's bound to be sensationalised.....if they're anything like the British press that is.

Alex

If it was a white kid no one would be up in arms over this

Nucks

This.

It isn't like the guy was arrested or anything. He was investigated, I am sure for a legitimate reason. If they had turned anything incriminating up he'd have been arrested. Nothing came of it.

The only story here is how fake 24 is, if THAT is how large a GPS tracker is, Jack Bauer has some SERIOUS explaining to do with his pinhead sized trackers ;p

Sir Matt

One FBI agent/former FBI agent from an article said that the one they used was really old and isn't normally used anymore. Now, they are a lot smaller and don't need the huge tube of batteries.

Frosty

Probably worth stating that the Supreme Court recently declared this activity as unconstitutional:

United States v. Jones | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law