GPS Tracking Device Found on AFA Members Car
Following an appearance at the Levin District Court in April, AFA members found a GPS tracking device on their car. This has since been traced back to Private Investigation firm Thompson and Clark.
We believe that Thompson and Clark were paid by the Pork Board to track our members following our pig investigation and efforts to expose the horrors of New Zealand pig farms to the public.
This is not the first time the Pork Board has been found to be using Thompson and Clark. In 2007 the Sunday Star Times reported that the Pork Board were using the Private Investigators. At that time, the then Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton expressed surprise that the organisation, set up under legislation and funded by a statutory levy, would use private investigators. "It's not the normal thing we associate with New Zealand institutions."
This story broke today in the Sunday Star Times. Read the full article here.
For images of the device click here.
Comments
why not ring the NZ pork
why not ring the NZ pork board with your thoughts on their cruelty ,lies and blatant corruption ,every call costs them!
0800 697 675
Ring from a cell phone, it
Ring from a cell phone, it costs them more. The receptionist is called Natasha and I know she is feeling the pressure from people calling her and telling her to get a real job.
Disclaimer: Please do not be unecessarily rude.
Good one. Seems like Thompson
Good one. Seems like Thompson and Clark are hiring morons.
Do you think the device was transmitting, or just storing GPS locations for later retrieval?
No surprise to see Thompson
No surprise to see Thompson and Clark up to their same old tricks, and with the court case against them unsuccessful I suppose they think they now have a carte blanche to stalk whoever and however they please.
As an aside... GPS jammers are surprisingly cheap. Don't want to go plastering adverts on indy, but there are many websites that sell them for around $25 USD if you search for something like: "High Power GPS Blocker with AC Adapter and Car Charger"
I'm sure we could all be using technology more smartly. (Including ditching facebook!)
There are a wide range of
There are a wide range of blockers out there and some are potentially useful. My very limited understanding is that these types of devices can transmit through via a range of frequencies including but certainly not limited to the cellphone network. In which case a high powered cell phone blocker would be required to have any effect.
Any blockers or anti surveillance device should only be treated as partial protection and you should do your research before buying anything.
There are also a range of surveillance devices which record to hard drive such as the bugging devices in the Oct 15 trial and the camera used to record people going into happy valley.
As always a healthy dose of common sense is far more protection from the state or private security firms than any amount of counter espionage technology.
oh, you are right. damn your
oh, you are right. damn your common sense... now I don't get to feel like rob gilchrist, errr, i mean james bond.
Well my guess is that it was
Well my guess is that it was just a cell phone that was being tracked through some sort of tracking arrangement with Vodafone. Considering that SAT GPS barely works with the gps device mounted on a dashboard, it would be struggling to download GPS data from satellites while under a car which is why the cops satellite gps loggers are usually placed near the top of vehicles.
Again, guessing, if it was actively transmitting location data to a receiver rather than pinging cell towers and Vodafone or some other service feeding Thomspon and Clark the cell location, then the batteries wouldn't last more than a couple of days even with the battery backup.
Be good to know if after all the battery pack and magnets aside, its just a cellphone then the basic cellular blocker would do the trick, but more importantly it would also be picked up by RF scanners that scan up to 2.4 ghz when it pings cell towers therefore if it is placed in a more difficult place than this one was, it can still be detected.
Also my other question is, was it really just sitting under the cars body like that, or was it buried further under. I just cant imagine this countrys top private spy agency - Thompson and Clark - being that incompetent to have not learnt from the last time they lost a spy device to activists.
In a high res photo taken of
In a high res photo taken of the device you can make out the model number GT200XT this pdf provides some information on the device http://www.custodia-systems.co.uk/pdfs/GT2000.pdf
This set of images shows how the device was attatched to the vehicle http://www.flickr.com/photos/45650247@N08/sets/72157624499490521/
It doubles as an audio
It doubles as an audio bug too and uses GPRS or SMS when GPRS is not available (900mhz or 1800mhz). Interesting tilt function on it too, I guess its a 45 deg thing I suppose, considering NZ roads, most cars will tilt. What happens when they receive a battery warning, that would mean they would need to come change the batteries....
Amateurs!
OK, too late now. But if you want to play "spook" games learn the appropriate tactics.
Here somebody thought they could put a tracking device on the car and they would thereby obtain information. As soon as you disable the device or you tell the world about it they know that they are no longer getting true information.
Get it? You had an oportunity to feed them FALSE/MISLEADING information. If they thought the device still undetected and attached to your car you could ..........
1) Make them think you (well your car) went somewhere when it didn't (device temporarily attached to another vehicle)
2) Make them assume your car sitting in your garage when actually made a trip (device temporarily detached and sitting in the garage).
Didn't those have possibilities. In the spook vs spook game one does not ordinarily surrender potential without an equivalent gain.
sorry mike, when you gonna
sorry mike, when you gonna hold a workshop?
My favourite would be a video
My favourite would be a video on youtube of the tracking device being run over, crushed and the remains then recycled if possible into something useful.
Fine and good, but the real
Fine and good, but the real question is, will it blend?
Spook games are good, do you
Spook games are good, do you remember the story about the Otago man who found a police tracking device in his car a few years ago? He listed it on TradeMe and then got arrested for stealing police property.
There was also apparently another case (but this is only heresay) about someone removing a trackng device and attaching it to other vehicles at different times. They apparently got arrested for wasting police time.