New Zealand - Police busted after tracking device found on car

[Pondlife]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB4/aamsz=3...768a24035.html

Police busted after tracking device found on car
By IAN STEWARD - The Press, Friday, 7 September 2007

A police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and listed them for sale on Trade Me.

Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation.

Police have neither confirmed nor denied they placed the devices.

Williams said a cellphone sim card in one of the devices appeared to transmit messages to the mobile phone of Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw, of the Central Otago CIB.

Williams provided The Press with emails from Shaw saying: "If you have got something of ours it would be good to get it back. You can call me and I can come meet you."

Williams said he found the devices concealed behind panels in the passenger-side footwells of the cars. They were marked with the name Trimble, an international company that produces GPS location devices.

Williams took apart one of the devices and found a sim card, which he put into a cellphone. He found the device was sending location text messages to Shaw's mobile number.

Williams placed one of the devices on Trade Me with a price of $250.

The ad read: "Used government covert surveillance tracking. No police to bid on this."

A Trade Me spokesman said the listing was removed yesterday afternoon "at the request of the New Zealand Police".

Williams said the cars were seized for investigation after an unmarked police car was torched in Alexandra in July.

The investigation produced nothing on Williams, but when the cars were returned he contacted police because the cars were not running well, and he asked if they had left something behind.

Shaw emailed: "Can't immediately think of anything we would have left ... Like what ...?????"

Williams said he and Shaw then spoke on the phone, with Shaw telling him the devices were valuable and should be returned.

Shaw then emailed repeatedly asking for "the stuff" back.

When contacted by The Press, Shaw declined to comment other than to say: "Police use a variety of legitimate investigation techniques when investigating serious crime. However, it is not the policy of the police to comment on those techniques or other operational matters."

Shaw would not say whether a warrant had been obtained for the devices. The Summary Proceedings Act, which covers tracking devices, says a warrant should be obtained for a tracking device but an officer can install one without a warrant if there is not time and the officer believes a judge would issue a warrant.

Williams said he did not know why police were interested in him. He spent two years in jail "20 years ago" for selling marijuana to an undercover policeman, but had no convictions since then.

Williams said the devices were not hard to find and he described the operation as "a bumbling attempt" by "weirdos".

New Zealand Civil Liberties Council chairman Michael Bott said the affair had "shades of (George Orwell's) Nineteen Eighty-four", as well as "shades of the Keystone Kops".

[~lostgurl~]

This news video had me rolling on the floor, the video is funnier than the article, I wanna shake this guys hand!

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_w...bandwidth=128k

[Pondlife]

Some more news on this story. This one says that Ralph Williams has been arrested for theft. I have no idea what the legal position on this is (esp. under NZ law), but it sounds like it could be an interesting day in court.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318360/1336811

Police bugs put up for sale
Sep 7, 2007 6:13 PM

A Cromwell man who found police surveillance gear in two cars they returned to him has been arrested for theft of property.

Ralph Williams had put the devices up for auction on Trade Me but police had the ad taken off the the internet website.

Williams was being a little cheeky when he found the bugs in two cars given back to him by police and put them up for sale on the web. Police pulled the ad, apparently telling Trade Me that the seller did not own the devices.

ONE News reporter Tsehai Tiffin was there when the police team swooped and they confirmed he was under arrest for the theft of "some property of the New Zealand Police".

Williams told ONE News that the items had to be the listening devices.

Police took away at least one of the cars that had been fitted with tracking devices. The car had been returned to him bugged he says by police investigating the arson of a vehicle of their own.

Someone torched a brand new police mufti car right in front of the Cromwell police station - a two month old Holden Commodore.

"I did nothing wrong," Williams says. "The police car burning had nothing whatsoever to do with me...there's no evidence to suggest it did."

He says he put the ad on Trade Me to bring attention to what police were doing and because he says they didn't immediately own up to the tracking devices.

He says they initially replied no to an email he sent asking if they had left anything behind and then later changed that to a maybe.

Williams had found a sim card in one of the devices that gave him the number of the local police.

Police would not comment because it is an operational matter but in a statement they say the equipment was used according to a court order.

[Woodman]

Wait just a fucking minute!!!

They took his cars, then they returned the vehicles with EXTRA gear that was INTENTIONALLY installed.

...and now, he's under arrest because they want it back?

That IS fucked-up!

If they didn't want him to have it, then they shouldn't have put it there in the first place.

ASSHOLES!

[~lostgurl~]

Those cops must be pretty pissed off to try this on, no way it will stand up in court. I had to laugh when the Ralph Williams said he took the cops on a wild goose chase parking outside massage parlors and gang pads. This guy has a great sense of humor, pity the cops don't.