Poor Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), they were forced to turn off all of the Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices they attached to peoples’ cars without so much as a warrant:
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.
Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.
That’s not even the best part though:
After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.
First they stick these devices on the cars of unsuspecting individuals, then they are forced to turn them off, and now they’re having a hard time recovering them because they can’t track them anymore. Irony is sweet. Since they can’t track these devices anymore I’d say it’s finders keepers.
I always figured if you found one on your car the appropriate response would be to take it to the range and shoot it up. After all if it is on your car it seems like it is your property.
I agree, if you purposely discard something in or on my vehicle then you obviously wanted me to have it. Although I’m not sure if I’d destroy the device or try to sell it on the open market for some good change.