FBI Agents Pose as Repairmen to Bypass Warrant Process

[mojave green]

This is a creepy story. The FBI wanted access to a hotel guest's room without a warrant. So agents broke his Internet connection, and then posed as Internet technicians to gain access to his hotel room without a warrant.

From the motion to suppress:

The next time you call for assistance because the internet
service in your home is not working, the "technician" who comes
to your door may actually be an undercover government agent.
He will have secretly disconnected the service, knowing that
you will naturally call for help and -- when he shows up at
your door, impersonating a technician -- let him in. He will
walk through each room of your house, claiming to diagnose the
problem. Actually, he will be videotaping everything (and
everyone) inside. He will have no reason to suspect you have
broken the law, much less probable cause to obtain a search
warrant. But that makes no difference, because by letting him
in, you will have "consented" to an intrusive search of your
home.

Basically, the agents snooped around the hotel room, and gathered evidence that they submitted to a magistrate to get a warrant. Of course, they never told the judge that they had engineered the whole outage and planted the fake technicians.

This feels like an important case to me. We constantly allow repair technicians into our homes to fix this or that technological thingy. If we can't be sure they are not government agents in disguise, then we've lost quite a lot of our freedom and liberty.

The motion to suppress:
http://ia902307.us.archive.org/34/items/gov.uscourts.nvd.102542/gov.uscourts.nvd.102542.229.0.pdf or http://************/le9p4aj

Another article:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/002158.html

by Bruce Schneier
CTO, Co3 Systems, Inc.

 

[DrFever]

to funny really first of all i would of told the repair man / FBI to go fuck them selfs i never called anyone to come repair nothing hotel room or not i would say sorry i paid for this room and i do not need the internet so you can fix it when i check out ty
and if they would of said well your router which i find hilarious i would of said yea its down stairs front desk i think you should be there haha cause all hotels are wire less ty

 

[igrowone]

ah yes, law enforcement takes the high road once again
an obvious counter to this practice
ask for employee id numbers so you can verify their identity with the company
don't let anyone into your room/residence without id verification
they can of course squeeze companies to cooperate with them, but much less easy for leo

 

[FlowerFarmer]

This is a creepy story.

Easy solution.
Nobody comes in the house after a grow is going. Nobody.. ever.

Better get that internet/cable installed before you get started and pray it never stops working. If it does.. I'd be left no choice then to cancel or wait it out until a garden can be broken down and all equipment hidden.

Something breaks or needs replaced. I'd better be able to handle it myself or otherwise resolve the issue without anyone gaining entry.


Those are the rules folks.. if you break them you've now added that "X" factor of someone having been in your home who might have either saw, smelled, or claimed either.

 

[WeetisPotPie]

I guess that security smarts come with age, good thing having experience. I am luckily skilled in repairing almost anything that can break in my house. In case of extreme repairs, hot water heater, or anything needing copper installed I have a friend who is my go to guy. Will drop anything to help, of course he gets free smoke whenever he wants it.

Every few years I get the gas company knocking on my door claiming they have to inspect the gas main. For some reason the asshole who rebuilt my house had it installed on the inside instead of out. I usually tell em to fuck off, until I can harvest.

Bottom line if you don't have a warrant I don't give a fuck who you are, you ain't comin in!

 

[resinryder]

Part of the Patriot Act allows for warrantless/sneak-n-peak searches just like this in order to obtain cause for a search warrant, or not. Dirty, dirty muddafuckers!!

 

[waveguide]

this was an episode of the furry freak bros?

 

[mojave green]

of course, knowledge is power, and due diligence is wise, but...if you are on the fed radar, they will find a way.

 

[growshopfrank]

A couple of years ago a pair of RCMP members posed as home buyers and busted a guy that was showing his home while he had an active grow going on
The story made the local news and quoted the real estate agent saying that he "shit his pants" when they pulled out their guns

 

[dddaver]

A couple of years ago a pair of RCMP members posed as home buyers and busted a guy that was showing his home while he had an active grow going on
The story made the local news and quoted the real estate agent saying that he "shit his pants" when they pulled out their guns

I sure hope they spelled SHIT right. Maybe I shouldn't be encouraging my 8 year old g-dau. to read the newspapers.

Really like your avatar BTW.