Man Finds GPS Device on His Car; FBI Demands it Back

It was like a scene out of The Matrix. Less than 24 hours after 20-year-old Yaser Afifi found what looked like a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device lodged underneath his car and put photos up on the Internet to try and identify it, the Men in Black were seen poking around in his driveway. After a brief, seemingly innocuous exchange with them, he drove off, only to be pulled over minutes later by police wearing bulletproof vests and traveling in unmarked SUVs. The FBI wanted their tracking device back.

“We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate,” one agent supposedly told Afifi when he asked whether they had put the GPS under his car. Afifi shared his story with Wired magazine this week.

Afifi's experience may seem out of the norm for law enforcement activities, but it is not, so far, outside the law. The courts have offered mixed rulings on whether the government can secretly affix cars with GPS without first seeking a court order. For example, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last month that the government could not monitor individuals in their vehicles without a warrant, but the Fourth District and Ninth Circuit Courts ruled over the summer that it could.

Legal experts say that in order to make the practice -- or the restriction of it -- uniform, the U.S. Supreme Court needs to step in. Afifi contacted the ACLU soon after he discovered the device and was told his was just the kind of case "we throw lawyers at" in hopes of getting the issue an airing before the High Court.

Afifi, who is a native U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, is a marketing student at Mission College in Santa Clara, where he also resides. His father was the president of the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara before he moved the family back to Egypt in 2003. Afifi returned to the States to pursue an education and says he works to help provide for his brothers overseas.

He told Wired that he was contacted two years ago by an FBI agent who said they had an anonymous tip that he might be a "threat to national security." Afifi said he would be willing to answer their questions after consulting his lawyer. He never heard from them again. (Read more after the jump.)

Until now. He said his car was on a lift at the auto repair shop when the GPS device was detected. He and his friend put pictures online with hopes of getting the geek community to weigh in on what exactly it was.

"It's a Guardian ST820. It's a GPS tracking unit made by the company Cobham, the product line is called Orion," wrote a commenter by the name of "jeanmarcp." "Sales (are) restricted to army and law enforcement ... yes, FBI or Police is after you."

Wired confirmed with an ex-FBI agent that the photos of the device indeed depicted an older model tracking device, though the agent insisted the FBI in this case must have obtained a warrant before putting it on Afifi's car. Maybe, maybe not. When contacted by the publication, the FBI would not confirm ownership of the device, nor whether its agents had been at Afifi's apartment.

Though the cases tried in federal court so far have involved illegal drug dealing, this latest example might indicate a broader use of warrantless vehicle surveillance in the FBI's domestic terrorism operations. Critics say it looks like another form of FBI intimidation in the Muslim community under the guise of "homeland security."  But because of the secretive nature of counter-terrorism post 9/11, it may be some time before we know how widespread the practice really is.

Photo Credit: Yaser Afifi