7 ms·

Facebook fugitive attached GPS monitor to a “motorized contraption”

41 points by batguano 12y ago

batguano 12y ago
I wonder how he got the bracelet off of his ankle, without setting off an alarm.
- kaeawc 12y ago
  It says in the article that the police were alerted to bracelet tampering: "The filing said the authorities got suspicious that something was awry with the GPS device on March 6. An agent spoke with Ceglia on the phone and "Ceglia reported that the bracelet had been damaged in a fall." But the agent said it subsequently was "functioning properly" until the next day."
  - pinko 12y ago
    This implies that these things must throw false alarms with some regularity, otherwise this would have been a huge red flag and they wouldn't have hesitated to follow up immediately.
    - danielweber 12y ago
      This seems likely. Even if you get him on the phone, you could have an officer drive by sometime in the next day to visually inspect that the ankle bracelet is still there. (Of course I would get a second bracelet and strap a dummy one to my leg to show to the officer. Officer would need some way of verifying he's seeing the right one.)
- tomswartz07 12y ago
  I might be wrong, but I think they can remove the bracelet temporarily to charge it.
kodis 12y ago
If all he needed to do was to show some movement of the tracker, he could have just duct-taped it to a Roomba. He'd get much more realistic motion with much less effort.
- pinko 12y ago
  Great idea except for the battery life. He presumably wanted more than a few hours of activity.
  - blfr 12y ago
    Doesn't roomba charge itself and then go for another run?
    - batguano 12y ago
      This issue is charging the ankle bracelet, not the roomba (which connects itself to a charger as you point out).
      - Fiahil 12y ago
        Well, I guess you could plug the bracelet to a power source with a long cord.
    - sjs382 12y ago
      It makes its way back to the dock, but the model I own doesn't start again as soon as it's charged.
    - delecti 12y ago
      The monitor needed to be charged as well. So while the roomba would be charged, the monitor could very well die and cause the same suspicion as if it were off.
- randall 12y ago
  Or a ceiling fan?
keithpeter 12y ago
Why is this even a criminal case? Could a civil court not just chuck out the idiotic claim on the lower 'balance of probabilities' test?
- billyhoffman 12y ago
  Because fraud is a crime.
  - linuxlizard 12y ago
    * unless you're a large enough bank.
- duskwuff 12y ago
  The criminal case was brought against Ceglia when it became apparent that his claims to a stake in Facebook were based on forged documents. That's fraud; it's a criminal offense.
  - nikcub 12y ago
    It's interesting that the big law firms like DLA Piper[0] who backed him pro bono and conducted "extensive due diligence" on his claims walked away without even much of a tarnished reputation. [0] Facebook are suing them. http://abovethelaw.com/2014/10/lawsuit-of-the-day-facebook-sues-dla-piper/ http://abovethelaw.com/2014/10/lawsuit-of-the-day-facebook-s...
    - keithpeter 12y ago
      Thanks to grandparent for clarification. Allegedly forging documents will get you in trouble quickly certainly. I suppose it depends on the resources the big law firm has for spotting forgery.
nfoz 12y ago
40 years sounds like an awful brutal sentence hanging over this man's head. Then again, the accusation is that he forged documents and emails, and deleted others, as part of a lawsuit. That seems pretty bad. But 40 years literally takes someone's life away. The crime was nonviolent. Maybe 10 years in jail would be a harsh enough penalty? That's pretty life-changing. I suppose it's up to the judge, maybe if he wasn't using crazy methods to flee from bail he wouldn't end up with the max penalty. Seems like he's screwed now. This whole thing makes me uncomfortable.
- cloakandswagger 12y ago
  Personally, if presented the chance to be financially set for life at the risk of going to jail for a decade, I might go for it depending on what I thought my odds were. Conversely, if there was a risk of going to jail for 40 years then no odds short of 99% could convince me to risk it.
  - dmm 12y ago
    This comment will be used against you if you are ever charged with a crime.
    - cloakandswagger 12y ago
      Unless it's a crime with 40+ years penalty, in which case it will exonerate me!
- lione 12y ago
  Seriously. I don't get how a non violent crime like this gets more jail time then if someone was a heroin selling murderer.
  - declan 12y ago
    Welcome to the wonderful world of federal overcriminalization. Aaron Swartz faced 13 federal felonies (the Feds upped it from 4 to 13 at some point) and a possible maximum of 50+ years in prison: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/17393320412/us-government-ups-felony-count-jstoraaron-swartz-case-four-to-thirteen.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/17393320412/us-go... Then there's the No Electronic Theft Act, which Clinton signed into law. It made not-for-profit copyright infringement -- think sharing on P2P networks -- a federal felony. Previously it was a civil matter. Now <gvb> is correct that there are sentencing guidelines that will make the likely sentence less. But even the outside possibility of a young man or woman leaving prison when they're 70-80+ years old for a non-violent crime is remarkable. (Note I'm not defending Paul Ceglia, who may well have committed fraud and should pay the price if convicted; I'm merely saying that the punishment should correspond to the gravity of the offense.) These are DOJ stats for the year 2000, but it gives you an idea of the range for violent felonies: "The mean prison sentence for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was nearly 20 years and 8 months." http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/Fssc00.txt http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/Fssc00.txt Harvey Silverglate's book "Three Felonies a Day" is an excellent resource, and I separately wrote about the overcriminalization of federal law here: http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u-s-anti-hacking-law-went-astray/ http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u...
sjs382 12y ago
Like the scene in Home Alone where the kid puts cardboard cutouts on a model train set, to make the burglars think there's a party happening at the house. :) Edit: I guess that scene was more elaborate than I remembered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOuoJmcozk#t=2m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOuoJmcozk#t=2m13s
- danielweber 12y ago
  Apparently there isn't a lot of "Get Smart" on YouTube or else I could have pointed to that ~20 years earlier.
joshstrange 12y ago
I work in the correction industry with devices like this one. Most devices don't have accelerometers in them so so the "motorized contraption" would not be needed, the picture is too blurry for me to make out what brand of ankle bracelet this is or I could tell you if it has one. GPS drift would make it impossible to tell if someone is moving in their house (Normally looking at GPS points shows a clustering around the house and sometimes as far as a 50+ meters outside their house. As to those asking how he got it off, the article says it was "sliced" off so my guess is he cut the strap (then lied about the fall) which cut the fiber optic cable in the bracelet, he then reattached the fiber optic cable and taped it up. The police SHOULD have been sent as soon as they got a strap tamper alert but it appears they believed the fall story. Note most of the time police don't talk to the participants when this happens, rather a monitoring company staffs a call center then send recording of the call and notes to the user's supervisor who then can choose to alert the police. Apparently there is another way to get these off if the bracelet is loose enough that involves a plastic bag and sliding it off (a co-worker mentioned a video going around of it but I've never seen it) but due to the fact this article mentions they were alerted to it being tampered with I doubt that is the case.
spiritplumber 12y ago
Everything else aside, this is a beautifully executed hack.
matmann2001 12y ago
Why not attach it to the dog? Or a Roomba?

41 points by batguano 12y ago

batguano 12y ago

I wonder how he got the bracelet off of his ankle, without setting off an alarm.

kaeawc 12y ago
It says in the article that the police were alerted to bracelet tampering: "The filing said the authorities got suspicious that something was awry with the GPS device on March 6. An agent spoke with Ceglia on the phone and "Ceglia reported that the bracelet had been damaged in a fall." But the agent said it subsequently was "functioning properly" until the next day."
- pinko 12y ago
  This implies that these things must throw false alarms with some regularity, otherwise this would have been a huge red flag and they wouldn't have hesitated to follow up immediately.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    This seems likely. Even if you get him on the phone, you could have an officer drive by sometime in the next day to visually inspect that the ankle bracelet is still there. (Of course I would get a second bracelet and strap a dummy one to my leg to show to the officer. Officer would need some way of verifying he's seeing the right one.)
tomswartz07 12y ago
I might be wrong, but I think they can remove the bracelet temporarily to charge it.

kodis 12y ago

If all he needed to do was to show some movement of the tracker, he could have just duct-taped it to a Roomba. He'd get much more realistic motion with much less effort.

pinko 12y ago
Great idea except for the battery life. He presumably wanted more than a few hours of activity.
- blfr 12y ago
  Doesn't roomba charge itself and then go for another run?
  - batguano 12y ago
    This issue is charging the ankle bracelet, not the roomba (which connects itself to a charger as you point out).
    - Fiahil 12y ago
      Well, I guess you could plug the bracelet to a power source with a long cord.
  - sjs382 12y ago
    It makes its way back to the dock, but the model I own doesn't start again as soon as it's charged.
  - delecti 12y ago
    The monitor needed to be charged as well. So while the roomba would be charged, the monitor could very well die and cause the same suspicion as if it were off.
randall 12y ago
Or a ceiling fan?

keithpeter 12y ago

Why is this even a criminal case? Could a civil court not just chuck out the idiotic claim on the lower 'balance of probabilities' test?

billyhoffman 12y ago
Because fraud is a crime.
- linuxlizard 12y ago
  * unless you're a large enough bank.
duskwuff 12y ago
The criminal case was brought against Ceglia when it became apparent that his claims to a stake in Facebook were based on forged documents. That's fraud; it's a criminal offense.
- nikcub 12y ago
  It's interesting that the big law firms like DLA Piper[0] who backed him pro bono and conducted "extensive due diligence" on his claims walked away without even much of a tarnished reputation. [0] Facebook are suing them. http://abovethelaw.com/2014/10/lawsuit-of-the-day-facebook-sues-dla-piper/ http://abovethelaw.com/2014/10/lawsuit-of-the-day-facebook-s...
  - keithpeter 12y ago
    Thanks to grandparent for clarification. Allegedly forging documents will get you in trouble quickly certainly. I suppose it depends on the resources the big law firm has for spotting forgery.

nfoz 12y ago

40 years sounds like an awful brutal sentence hanging over this man's head. Then again, the accusation is that he forged documents and emails, and deleted others, as part of a lawsuit. That seems pretty bad. But 40 years literally takes someone's life away. The crime was nonviolent. Maybe 10 years in jail would be a harsh enough penalty? That's pretty life-changing. I suppose it's up to the judge, maybe if he wasn't using crazy methods to flee from bail he wouldn't end up with the max penalty. Seems like he's screwed now. This whole thing makes me uncomfortable.

cloakandswagger 12y ago
Personally, if presented the chance to be financially set for life at the risk of going to jail for a decade, I might go for it depending on what I thought my odds were. Conversely, if there was a risk of going to jail for 40 years then no odds short of 99% could convince me to risk it.
- dmm 12y ago
  This comment will be used against you if you are ever charged with a crime.
  - cloakandswagger 12y ago
    Unless it's a crime with 40+ years penalty, in which case it will exonerate me!
lione 12y ago
Seriously. I don't get how a non violent crime like this gets more jail time then if someone was a heroin selling murderer.
- declan 12y ago
  Welcome to the wonderful world of federal overcriminalization. Aaron Swartz faced 13 federal felonies (the Feds upped it from 4 to 13 at some point) and a possible maximum of 50+ years in prison: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/17393320412/us-government-ups-felony-count-jstoraaron-swartz-case-four-to-thirteen.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/17393320412/us-go... Then there's the No Electronic Theft Act, which Clinton signed into law. It made not-for-profit copyright infringement -- think sharing on P2P networks -- a federal felony. Previously it was a civil matter. Now <gvb> is correct that there are sentencing guidelines that will make the likely sentence less. But even the outside possibility of a young man or woman leaving prison when they're 70-80+ years old for a non-violent crime is remarkable. (Note I'm not defending Paul Ceglia, who may well have committed fraud and should pay the price if convicted; I'm merely saying that the punishment should correspond to the gravity of the offense.) These are DOJ stats for the year 2000, but it gives you an idea of the range for violent felonies: "The mean prison sentence for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter was nearly 20 years and 8 months." http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/Fssc00.txt http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/Fssc00.txt Harvey Silverglate's book "Three Felonies a Day" is an excellent resource, and I separately wrote about the overcriminalization of federal law here: http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u-s-anti-hacking-law-went-astray/ http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u...

sjs382 12y ago

Like the scene in Home Alone where the kid puts cardboard cutouts on a model train set, to make the burglars think there's a party happening at the house. :) Edit: I guess that scene was more elaborate than I remembered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOuoJmcozk#t=2m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOuoJmcozk#t=2m13s

danielweber 12y ago
Apparently there isn't a lot of "Get Smart" on YouTube or else I could have pointed to that ~20 years earlier.

joshstrange 12y ago

I work in the correction industry with devices like this one. Most devices don't have accelerometers in them so so the "motorized contraption" would not be needed, the picture is too blurry for me to make out what brand of ankle bracelet this is or I could tell you if it has one. GPS drift would make it impossible to tell if someone is moving in their house (Normally looking at GPS points shows a clustering around the house and sometimes as far as a 50+ meters outside their house. As to those asking how he got it off, the article says it was "sliced" off so my guess is he cut the strap (then lied about the fall) which cut the fiber optic cable in the bracelet, he then reattached the fiber optic cable and taped it up. The police SHOULD have been sent as soon as they got a strap tamper alert but it appears they believed the fall story. Note most of the time police don't talk to the participants when this happens, rather a monitoring company staffs a call center then send recording of the call and notes to the user's supervisor who then can choose to alert the police. Apparently there is another way to get these off if the bracelet is loose enough that involves a plastic bag and sliding it off (a co-worker mentioned a video going around of it but I've never seen it) but due to the fact this article mentions they were alerted to it being tampered with I doubt that is the case.

spiritplumber 12y ago

Everything else aside, this is a beautifully executed hack.

matmann2001 12y ago

Why not attach it to the dog? Or a Roomba?