Putting the tracking device on Ebay (or it's New Zealand equivelent
anyway) happened recently
http://rinf.com/alt-news/latest-news...d-on-car/1219/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/48059/Man-fin...evices-in-cars

The police were somewhat embarrased and Trademe pulled the ad.

Man finds police tracking devices in cars
Last updated 00:00 07/09/2007
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A police operation to covertly follow a man came to an abrupt halt
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, when the
cars were returned by police after being seized and searched.

Police have neither confirmed nor denied they placed the devices. But
Mr Williams said a mobile phone Sim card in one of the devices
appeared to transmit messages to the mobile phone of Detective
Sergeant Derek Shaw, of Central Otago CIB.

Mr Williams also claimed he had e-mails from Mr 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."

Mr 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 ..."

A Trade Me spokesman said the listing was removed yesterday "at the
request of the New Zealand Police".

Mr Williams said the cars were seized after an unmarked police car was
torched in Alexandra in July. An investigation found nothing on him.

Mr Shaw would only say yesterday: "Police use a variety of legitimate
investigation techniques. However, it is not the policy of the police
to comment on those techniques or other operational matters."

The Summary Proceedings Act says a warrant should be obtained for a
tracking device but one can be installed without a warrant if there is
not time and an officer believes a judge would issue one if time
permitted.


On Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:42:29 -0800, "Bruce L. Bergman (munged human
readable)" wrote:

On Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:34:12 -0600, "David R. Birch"
wrote:


Assuming you find such a device on your vehicle, what are the potential
legal consequences to you if said device were to find its way onto
another vehicle?

David

Theoretically, of course...

It's your vehicle, and by legal extension everything attached to it is
yours. Assuming you don't find a tag on the tracking bug saying
"Property of the FBI, Please return to..." (or DEA, or Your Friendly
Local Police Dept.) I would consider it a gift.

Pull the batteries and see how much you can get for it on eBay. And
if the auction gets any attention in the media I'll betcha the bidding
gets rather vigorous - them puppies ain't cheap.

The Feds have to follow the same laws as everyone else, they can't
just mail you a Free Transistor Radio (or stick it under your car...)
then a month later send you a bill for it - there is case law in place
that if you didn't order it, or sign something on receipt
acknowledging that you owe them money for it, it was a Gift pure and
simple.

(Of course, common law doesn't mean borscht if the Judge chooses to
ignore it, but that assumes you have actually been doing something
wrong and they can convince the judge. And that part's beyond the
scope of your question, so we'll just assume you're being a model Boy
Scout.)

-- Bruce --