Posted on 05/08/2002 1:31:26 PM PDT by kattracks
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 08, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Mailbox bomb suspect Luke Helder made a crucial mistake while on the run: He turned on his cell phone.
As soon as he activated it, FBI agents quickly triangulated his position between two rural towns and had him in handcuffs within an hour Tuesday, according to Nevada authorities.
The fact that another motorist spotted Helder in passing helped authorities, but the cell phone signal - like a locator beacon - was a dead giveaway.
"We got a call from the FBI at approximately 3:20 p.m. that the cell phone that (Helder) had been known to have had been activated somewhere between Battle Mountain and Golconda," said Maj. Rick Bradley of the Nevada Highway Patrol. "We started hitting Interstate 80."
The Highway Patrol flooded the area with officers and quickly had Helder in custody, Bradley said Wednesday.
Bradley said tracking down Helder without the pinpoint location provided by the FBI would have been tougher, given the sprawling region.
"It's really a rural area. There's not that much police presence," Bradley said.
Helder also placed a call to his parents' Minnesota home, and spoke with an FBI agent they handed the phone to. But the technology trick used by the FBI helped seal Helder's fate.
Gayle Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Las Vegas office, refused to go into detail about how the bureau did it, or even to acknowledge what it did.
"As far as investigative technique, we don't disclose that information," Jacobs said.
Cell phone triangulation is a well-known tracking method within the wireless industry, said Michael Barker, an equipment sales manager for Cell-Loc, based in Calgary, Alberta. His company provides tracking services to help people who are incapacitated and unable to dial for help.
"Every time the cell phone is on, it periodically sends a little registration message to the phone company, 'Here I am! Here I am!"' Barker said. That message contains the cell phone's electronic serial number and tells the service provider when the phone has drifted in and out of cell tower range.
Federal agents then easily can get in contact with the cell phone service company and get the location of the nearest cell tower in contact with the activated phone, Barker said.
Law enforcement then can equip agents with devices designed to triangulate the signal and determine its location within about a third of a mile and the direction it was traveling in, Barker said. Handheld equipment for such a search is not sold to the general public, he said.
Robin Gross, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that the technology could be abused. She said cell phone tracking could be used to follow the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.
"I think it's inappropriate to be tracking people under some kind of assumption that they might do something illegal," Gross said. "I just think it's ripe for abuse by law enforcement and by government."
By RON HARRIS Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Personally, I object to the existence of prisons cells with iron bars. They could be used to restrict the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.
B. Thanks to this article, real criminals on the run now know to shut their cell phones off. Brilliant move on the part of this reporter. < /sarcasm >
My first thought exactly. I suppose that just shows that I'm and sociopathic criminal just waiting for the opportunity to snap...and take out my frustrations on rural mailboxes? What a weird world we live in.
A long time ago, I toyed with the idea of going to law school, and while considering my next move, I interned at the Hennepin County Public Defender's office right after graduating from college (it's always good to intern after you've earned your degree. You don't make any money AND you don't earn any credits). The interns interviewed the clients, witnesses, victims, etc., and prepared reports, timelines etc. for the PD's to use at trial. Of course, the vast majority of cases pleaded out and never got that far, bu it was incredibly eye opening. Two things that I learned-
1.) If you find yourself in the middle of a gang shooting make sure you are the target, because the odds are the only people who will be hit are innocent bystanders.
2.) None of the clients I interviewed ever thought they would be caught. Every one of them was certain that they were smarter than the police, sherriff, BCA, and the County Attorney combined (OK, to be fair, I doubt any of them actually knew than Minnesota has a BCA...). I found this attitude amazing. How arrogant do you have to be to have that sort of worldview? And how naive? Even if you were smarter than each and every individual in law enforcement, at what point do they start to out think you just by sheer force of numbers? I think that attitude is common among criminals though. On the other hand, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be audited, pulled over for speeding, fined for watering my lawn on an even day or whatever. Somehow, I got the sense of guilt drilled into me early on, and it never, ever goes away.
You know, there was a more pertinent point when I started writing that seems to have escaped me at the moment...
2.) None of the clients I interviewed ever thought they would be caught. Every one of them was certain that they were smarter than the police, sherriff, BCA, and the County Attorney combined (OK, to be fair, I doubt any of them actually knew than Minnesota has a BCA...). I found this attitude amazing. How arrogant do you have to be to have that sort of worldview? And how naive? Even if you were smarter than each and every individual in law enforcement, at what point do they start to out think you just by sheer force of numbers? I think that attitude is common among criminals though. On the other hand, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be audited, pulled over for speeding, fined for watering my lawn on an even day or whatever. Somehow, I got the sense of guilt drilled into me early on, and it never, ever goes away.
Interesting post, thanks.
That "message" probably requires only a tiny chip. One that, say, could easily and painlessly implanted under the skin. A little mark on the surface would easily identify who has complied and received it or not.
What a boon to law enforcement, or finding and recovering lost or missing children, etc!
< /shudder >
There's a great thread that has the full text of this kid's letters. It's much longer than the one page excerpt that's been posted already.
The kid's not a frustrated, anti-government type.
The kid is a wacked out, lunatic, energetic Shirley MacLaine type!
Check it out: Herald receives letter from pipe bomb suspect (Full text of 7-page letter with pics!)
Mark W.
Thank you! that was where I was going before I wandered off into the fog...
Based on the clients I had the pleasure of working with, they won't get the message. As a whole, the everyday run of the mill guys charged with assault, domestics, robbery, hit and run, etc. that I worked with weren't real big on reading the papers or following current events.
Terrorists (thugs trying to advance a political agenda through violence) change that equation as they tend to be more dialed into the news, but everyday criminals will have to have the cell phone on so they can call their pals and boast about the exploit. It's just part of their makeup.
That's an excerpt from his letter.
"I will be like the Most High!"
That's an exerpt from somebody else who thought he was his own god.
Like Newt Gingrich?
[laughs] Remember that scene in "The Life of Brian" when "Loretta" tells his friends he wants to be a girl? "It's symbolic of our struggle against oppression!" one says. "It's symbolic of his struggle against reality" the other corrects...
The only thing this kid was against was rationality...
Mark W.
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