Hard not to laugh. From stuff.co.nz:
Police busted after tracking device found on car
A police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and listed them for sale on Trade Me.
Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation.
Police have neither confirmed nor denied they placed the devices.
Williams said a cellphone sim card in one of the devices appeared to transmit messages to the mobile phone of Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw, of the Central Otago CIB.
Williams provided The Press with emails from Shaw saying: "If you have got something of ours it would be good to get it back. You can call me and I can come meet you."
Williams said he found the devices concealed behind panels in the passenger-side footwells of the cars. They were marked with the name Trimble, an international company that produces GPS location devices.
Williams took apart one of the devices and found a sim card, which he put into a cellphone. He found the device was sending location text messages to Shaw's mobile number.
Williams placed one of the devices on Trade Me with a price of $250.
The ad read: "Used government covert surveillance tracking. No police to bid on this."
Heh -- the article then goes on to quote some of the emails back and forth. It closes with these two paragraphs:
Williams said the devices were not hard to find and he described the operation as "a bumbling attempt" by "weirdos".
New Zealand Civil Liberties Council chairman Michael Bott said the affair had "shades of (George Orwell's) Nineteen Eighty-four", as well as "shades of the Keystone Kops".
No donuts for you!
