The FBI took my salvage

[Stig]

as there is a current theme of interesting arrests going on here I thought I'd share this little thing that happend a couple of years ago to one of my mates.

one night 3 of my mate were driving to town for a weekend drinking session when they spotted a guy driving irraticly ( I shall call this guy Bob to make explaining easer although I have no Idea what this guys namereally was) with no light on (It was night time) Concerned about a possible accident they decided to follow this Bob at a distance. It was soon obvious that Bob was either very drunk or on some serious drugs as his driving defied belief, as he went the wrong aroud roundabouts, used pavements, gardens etc... So my mate called the police & informed them of the pending danger. "Ok we'll get a unit out right away".
10mins later there still following Bob & no sign of the police even though they've been constantly telling the police where he's been heading. Bob finaly pulls into a petrol station & fills up. & then screeches across the forcourt & heads off without paying. Bob's still unaware of the road let alone my mate who's still following at a distance. Finaly Bob Pulls into his drive way & gets out the car. before he gets to his front door the police finaly turn up (30mins after first call)

So this is where it gets funny. You'd expect the police to at least question Bob wouldn't you. at least I would but what actualy happened is beyond belief & as funny as hell. The police walked into the situation & arrested my mate & his two friends, charging them with harassment because they had been following Bob. It was only the next day when petrol station had shared there forcourt camera footage that my mate was released. There was no appology & as far as I know Bob was never even cautioned let alone arrested.

It took quite some time before my mate could see th funny side.

 

[Otter]

On the way back from Dema 2002 in Las Vegas, three of us in our car noticed a car weaving erratically back and forth on the freeway. Having already entered California, we called the CHP and told them what we saw and that we were following the guy.

They suspected DUI took an off-ramp out in the middle of now where and then quickly sped ahead at excessive speed. Concerned that our following him/her might cause more harm, we stayed at the off-ramp and updated the CHP. About 2 mins later, a CHP Cruiser pulled along side, we told him what had happened and he thanked us and went off to track the guy down.

Hmmm....wait, thats what supposed to happen isn't it. We didn't get harassed and he even thanked us. I guess it does work sometimes.

P.S. Yes I know it doesn't always work the way its supposed to, I even get short air fills sometimes on board a boat and once, just once, I even had my gear assembled incorrectly (another reason I always tell my students to either double check your gear or just tell the DMs you will set it up yourself).

 

[fins]

Rick,

Watch out for those black helicopters

and don't worry about finding Jimmy Hoffa everybody knows he's buried in the concrete footings at Giants stadium

 

[Falcon99]

Wendy once bubbled...


Most folks don't understand that law enforcement is just doing their job. I hope your friend reconsiders.

Yeah, but that understanding goes away REAL quick when your thrown on the hood of a police car for asking them to stop blocking your business driveway with traffic stops. That one resulted in a BIG lawsuit settlement a few years back for a local business manager.

A-hole officers have no respect from me - period. There is no excuse for harassing law abiding people.

James

 

[Falcon99]

ianr33 once bubbled...
Anybody know how the diving is in Guantanamo??

The best you have ever seen!

Off topic - a friend of mine returned from a tour there and didn't have enough to say about the diving. The reef is almost untouched!

James

 

[GQMedic]

Umm, you missed the boat, go back and read TJ's post again! Duhhhhh

jjsteffen once bubbled...
*SNIP* phototj & scubafool
care to cite your source? or spout urban legends? go back and read the original posts. *UNSNIP*

 

[GDI]

:doctor: I agree with wALTER bIG bROTHER IS WATCHING:mean:

 

[Don Burke]

I learned the hard way to never give the description of my own vehicle when reporting a drunk driver. Dispatchers sometimes get the two vehicles confused.

You need to learn how to operate the system.

 

[RichLockyer]

Rick Inman once bubbled...
Anyway, you guys are SO funny! People keep looking in my office to see why I'm laughing.

Whatever you do, just keep posting.

As I was switching to page 3, I was getting ready (and hoping not to have the opportunity) to post "Anyone notice that Rick hasn't posted in 2 days?"

 

[jonnythan]

plsdiver4377 once bubbled...


By the way, the location ability using GPS in cell phones is already available and in use (for 911 calls, and I'm sure it could be perverted in some fashion). I just so happen to be carrying one made by Samsung with the digital technology by Qualcomm. The locating ability is good to +/- 10m.

Big brother is definitely watching.:mean:

I did an interview for a company in Syracuse that does the location finding for the major cell phone providers all over the Northeast. The tech guys did the interview, which basically consisted of showing me all of the servers, the incoming lines, and the super neato mapping software.

The software consisted of basically a map with cell phone towers. Whenever an emergency call was placed, the servers were notified. The signal and gain for each "participating" tower (there could be as many as six or seven) were immediately displayed, and the phone's position triangulated to a certain degree of accuracy. That accuracy could be anywhere from 10 feet to 100 meters depending on conditions.

The job was basically the Verizon guy's job. It was to grab this little electronic box and place it in my passenger seat with a laptop and cell phone. I'd drive a predetermined route and the server station could track my position and compute the system's accuracy... someone would then try to figure out how to make it better. The technology was really quite impressive.. and I was surprised to find that this one company (and apparently single server room) handled the tracking for every major cell service provider in the area.

In any case, it was neat. Certainly non-GPS. And it could pinpoint you with a (usually) reasonable degree of accuracy almost instantly. It made me feel a little better when the guy told me the software used to run the entire system didn't have the capability of tracking anything other than emergency calls.. but I imagine someone at some point in that line could if they wanted.