Man removes feds spy cam, they demand it back, he refuses and sues

[OnlinePoker]

Last November, a 74-year-old rancher and attorney was walking around his ranch just south of Encinal, Texas, when he happened upon a small portable camera strapped approximately eight feet high onto a mesquite tree near his son's home. The camera was encased in green plastic and had a transmitting antenna.

Not knowing what it was or how it got there, Ricardo Palacios removed it.

Soon after, Palacios received phone calls from Customs and Border Protection officials and the Texas Rangers. Each agency claimed the camera as its own and demanded that it be returned. Palacios refused, and they threatened him with arrest.

Palacios, who had run-ins with local CBP agents going back several years, took the camera as the last straw. He was tired of agents routinely trespassing on his land, and, even after complaining several times, he was frustrated that his grievances were not being heard.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/rancher-finds-creepy-and-un-american-spy-cam-tied-to-his-tree-sues-feds/

[Bradical79]

1. If someone finds your spy camera, just consider it lost

Claiming it's yours and demanding it be returned seems counterproductive if you're trying to run a covert operation.

[mitch96]

2. Camera? what camera... n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I have no doubt that our local authorities cross the line on a daily basis.

Rare that someone catches them doing it.

[MineralMan]

4. When I was 13 years old, I found a weather service radiosonde

transmitter on a hillside near my home, along with fragments of the balloon that carried it. There was a label on it telling me to call some phone number so the weather service could come and pick it up. I thought about that for a while.

Then, I opened the thing up to see what electronics were in there. It was pretty cool, with batteries and a two-vacuum-tube transmitter. The frequency it operated at was clearly marked. So, I tuned it in on my shortwave radio. The radiosonde unit had a nifty barometer, and a bimetal thermometer, connected to send data. The signal on the radio changed when I heated and cooled the unit, using a hair dryer and some ice cubes in a bag. I couldn't figure out an easy way to change the barometric pressure, though. So, I sort of calibrated the temperature reading crudely, but couldn't do much with the pressure reading.

After playing with it for couple of days, I put it all back together and called the number on the label. A guy showed up in an olive-drab 1957 Chevy to retrieve it. I told him that I had opened it and tested the temperature reading using my radio. He chuckled, and said, "Well son, good for you." Mostly we never get these back, so thanks for calling us. Then he put it in the car and drove off.

I'd have kept it, but really couldn't think of any way to use it for anything. So, I gave it back to them.