COPS PUT GPS TRACKER ON MAN’S CAR, CHARGE HIM WITH THEFT FOR REMOVING IT

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

In light of @mr moose’s video I’m not sure that’s what this is even about.  It’s about them getting a warrant based on them not finding the tracker  on his car.

My biggest issue with this is that they got a search warrant for "theft of a tracking device" that wouldn't have been stolen if the opportunity for a black, unmarked box being placed on the charged's car had never been placed. This reeks of entrapment. 

[RonnieOP]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

In which case it would have been damaging police property instead of theft.  6 of one half a dozen of the other.

 

police powers have been narrowing lately.  I wonder if the guy had an Alexa in his house or used an android phone?  Google has much greater potential powers of survelience than police do.

If you crush it with a hammer and throw it away they couldnt prove anything though. Even if they found it they couldnt prove who broke it.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, ARikozuM said:

My biggest issue with this is that they got a search warrant for "theft of a tracking device" that wouldn't have been stolen if the opportunity for a black, unmarked box being placed on the charged's car had never been placed. This reeks of entrapment. 

So they put something there that could be dealt with badly, and the dude dealt with it badly.  Not entrapment by itself.  There could be an argument that there was no way to deal with it that wasn’t bad though.  Then it WOULD be entrapment.  While you may have a point, the problem before the court as far as I can tell is more basic than that.

 

 They got a warrant for something they had no way of knowing if the guy even did.  

The second warrant was based on them NOT finding the tracker, and not knowing where it was.  IF the last ping on the tracker was in the barn, then they could look for their device, but the allegation of theft is garbage because they don’t know if he even found it.  Maybe it just fell off.  Searching the barn might even be considered reasonable under recovery of police property, but not theft.

 

At this point the exact wording of the second warrant becomes important.  WAS it worded as theft? Or was it worded in a manner that could include theft but also include a reasonably lost item?  If it was, IS a reasonably lost item grounds for a warrant?  If so under what circumstances?  We’re those circumstances met?  Part of the thing I see here is that the grounds for a third warrant, a single piece of paraphanalia, wouldn’t in a lot of places be grounds for a warrant UNLESS the guy was on probation.  IF he was on probation a lot of this violation of rights stuff may or may not go up in smoke, because the terms of a probation can waive any number of rights.  They are specific to probation terms though.

 

So IF the second warrant was legit, and there are various reasons it would or wouldn’t be, THEN we worry if there was a reasonable way for him to deal with the tracker even if it wasn’t the one he chose.  If there wasn’t THEN entrapment would be looked at.

 

So its a big mess.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Bombastinator
Extra thoughts

[Bombastinator]

9 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

If you crush it with a hammer and throw it away they couldnt prove anything though. Even if they found it they couldnt prove who broke it.

Perhaps.  Unless they could.  It’s a point though.  It would also be illegal so it still goes to the entrapment issue which might only come up if the first problem of the second warrant passes muster.

[Bitter]

So what if he had gone to an automotive shop/dealer service center and asked them what it was or asked them to remove it? Would the shop/technician be in trouble for removing it/keeping it? Would they have been charged with theft or removal of police property? I see GPS tracking devices on cars all the time placed there by finance companies. Sometimes they're still on vehicles after they've been paid off long ago, sometimes there's 2 or 3 of them under the dash still installed.

 

If I found something on my vehicle that I knew I didn't install I would surely remove it, open it to inspect it, google the FCC ID number or IMEI on it to find out what it is/who made it/who owns it and investigate how it was placed there. I assume this was a stand alone device not wired into the vehicle power likely stuck on with magnets?

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, Bitter said:

So what if he had gone to an automotive shop/dealer service center and asked them what it was or asked them to remove it? Would the shop/technician be in trouble for removing it/keeping it? Would they have been charged with theft or removal of police property? I see GPS tracking devices on cars all the time placed there by finance companies. Sometimes they're still on vehicles after they've been paid off long ago, sometimes there's 2 or 3 of them under the dash still installed.

 

If I found something on my vehicle that I knew I didn't install I would surely remove it, open it to inspect it, google the FCC ID number or IMEI on it to find out what it is/who made it/who owns it and investigate how it was placed there. I assume this was a stand alone device not wired into the vehicle power likely stuck on with magnets?

Doesn’t matter.  It’s not the actual problem I think.  IF the original problem isn’t killed on its own merits THEN this one might need to be dealt with.

[Founders]

[Hugh54321]

I would swap cars with someone or insure the car and set it on fire. lol make it look like the GPS unit started the fire!

[amdorintel]

26 minutes ago, Hugh54321 said:

I would swap cars with someone or insure the car and set it on fire. lol make it look like the GPS unit started the fire!

the easiest thing to do is drive around until you are 110% sure no one is following you.

then rip the gps tracker off, and put it on a different car, but rip it off while you are 4 stories down in a parkade

 

 

[Bombastinator]

Just now, amdorintel said:

the easiest thing to do is drive around until you are 110% sure no one is following you.

then rip the gps tracker off, and put it on a different car, but rip it off while you are 4 stories down in a parkade

 

 

I’m still liking the “rent the thing to Uber and make the cops chase it” idea just for the grin factor, but yours is more rational.

[amdorintel]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

I’m still liking the “rent the thing to Uber and make the cops chase it” idea just for the grin factor, but yours is more rational.

i would personally put real shit onto the gps tracker but write "fu pigs" in paint first on the gps tracker

[ARikozuM]

Just now, amdorintel said:

i would personally put real shit onto the gps tracker but write "fu pigs" in paint first on the gps tracker

And get grubby fingerprints on it?

 

NO.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, amdorintel said:

i would personally put real shit onto the gps tracker but write "fu pigs" in paint first on the gps tracker

That would be letting them know you know though.  With the Uber thing you can run them ragged for a week and when they show up you can just say “huh?”

[amdorintel]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

That would be letting them know you know though.  With the Uber thing you can run them ragged for a week and when they show up you can just say “huh?”

why not just leave it on a ferry from Victoria BC to Seattle Washington

[Bombastinator]

Just now, amdorintel said:

why not just leave it on a ferry from Victoria BC to Seattle Washington

That’s good.  And it doesn’t have the severe logistics problem of tying it to a dangerous wild animal.  Those I couldn’t work out.

[Bitter]

I mean if you're going to stick it on anything, stick it on a long haul truck, a train, or a city bus. Train would be pretty amusing and confusing however I'm sure they have actual visual surveillance on the vehicle from time to time and would notice fairly quick that the indicated position and GPS position do not match.

[amdorintel]

5 minutes ago, Bitter said:

a long haul truck

yes that too

 

or better yet, a competing drug dealers vehicle

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

yes that too

 

or better yet, a competing drug dealers vehicle

Why not on a cop car then for the lulz

'your honor, clearly this was for the lulz and cannot be considered a criminal act'

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

yes that too

 

or better yet, a competing drug dealers vehicle

Especially if the that dealer was the “confidential informant”. Too much to hope for though.

[TetraSky]

So... How do you know if police had a warrant and installed a GPS tracker on your car? Do they straight up tell you?

Otherwise, finding some strange device on your car and removing it without knowing what it's for, even more so if there's nothing on it identifying it, doesn't make you a thief. If you didn't know what it was or who put it there, of course any reasonable person would remove it.

The state is certainly applying double standards here and I hope the supreme court will find this ridiculous as well, even if the man is clearly guilty of other crimes, he shouldn't be labelled a thief.

[amdorintel]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

So... How do you know if police had a warrant and installed a GPS tracker on your car? Do they straight up tell you?

they wont tell you because they are legally spying on you and a judge needs to clear that

 

a valid claim can be made that the driver of the car thought that their ex was tracking them.

 

the state over charges in every single case they do, they do it in order to get a plea deal so they can clear as many cases as they can with minimal effort.

[Hugh54321]

2 hours ago, amdorintel said:

the easiest thing to do is drive around until you are 110% sure no one is following you.

then rip the gps tracker off, and put it on a different car, but rip it off while you are 4 stories down in a parkade

 

 

Stick it on a cop car!

[Nena Trinity]

How was China the worst again?

[Mooshi]

5 hours ago, Nena360 said:

How was China the worst again?

Well for one China tracks every single citizen regardless if they are a meth head or not.

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Well for one China tracks every single citizen regardless if they are a meth head or not.

I’m not sure if every single citizen is accurate.  There is a lot more checking in chinese tiered cities than in the interior where most of the population live.  Of course the interior is almost like a different country I have been given to understand.

 

perhaps a narrow point.