
Someone Is Selling a Genuine FBI Surveillance Van on EBay - duramato
https://www.geek.com/culture/someone-is-selling-a-genuine-fbi-surveillance-van-on-ebay-1708878/
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salimmadjd
I was in SF when a police undercover van raided a building. I wanted to see if
I examined the van closely, there would be something salient about it that
would make it easy to spot a police van in the future.

Even though the van was rather beat up. It had almost brand new tires with
excellent treads on it.

my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have reliable
engines and tires, even thought they are dressed to not stand out.

BTW, the police didn't like me so intently looking at their car and they IDed
me and played their intimidations game a bit.

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jstarfish
> my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have
> reliable engines and tires,

Not true. A department I interned with would use civil asset forfeit vehicles
as-is for undercover jobs.

New tires and engines aren't important; they aren't using these for pursuits,
and authenticity is the #1 most important form of camoflauge in these
situations-- your agent's life is often at risk. Having such obvious tells
(like whitewall tires, no hubcaps on govt vehicles, etc) is a good way to get
them killed and your investigation compromised.

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thunfischbrot
Does whitewall tires mean something other than those tires which have white
side-walls such as seen on classic cars?

~~~
jstarfish
Nope, that's exactly it.

[https://goo.gl/images/fpH49i](https://goo.gl/images/fpH49i)

It isn't limited to whitewalls specifically-- tire styles are passing fads
like any other. When specific tires start falling out of favor with consumers,
any vehicle still rocking (new) ones of the deprecated type was presumed to be
part of a fleet or motor pool. Fleet procurement tends not to concern itself
with staying trendy.

Police spycraft has advanced since the 60s though so to avoid these issues
they borrow from the pre-auction pool.

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strictnein
I honestly was expecting this not to be anything interesting. And then he
opens up the van and it looks quite legit.

Never thought about one of these including a toilet before, but that makes a
lot of sense.

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strictnein
Unfortunately this auction ended in July:

[https://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-Classic-FBI-Surveillance-
Van-S...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-Classic-FBI-Surveillance-Van-Super-
low-miles-1owner-/182673210638)

~~~
bhartzer
Yeah, it's old news. Already covered by numerous sites back in June and July.

~~~
Viper007Bond
This article is from July as well.

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olivermarks
I keep thinking parking a fully equipped van on a parking meter in San
Francisco every day would be a very cost effective 'rental' option instead of
paying for square footage in a building.

This would be even better with built in (except non private) khazi, and you'd
be able to put the kettle on when you saw your meeting attendees coming down
the street on your surveillance equipment....

~~~
jedberg
Unless you moved around a lot, the cops would probably catch on to you and
ding you for some sort of city code that prevents living in a van.

Back when I was in college, I actually seriously looked at buying a boat and
docking it Emeryville, as the boat payments and docking fee would have been
cheaper than rent. Unfortunately the marina had a 10 year wait list for live-
aboard slips.

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nitrogen
Isn't the way around that wait list to buy a boat that already has a slip?

~~~
jedberg
Yeah but those cost a lot more because of the premium on already having a
slip. Also you get an old decrepit boat that needs a lot of maintenance.

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ChuckMcM
Same chassis my class B motorhome is built on :-). I like the built in track
slide for the chair. I've always thought it would be fun to convert a travel
trailer into a mobile engineering lab and if I do, that will be how I rig the
chairs.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Have you ever seen Steve Roberts’ mobile engineering rig on his live aboard
motor yacht? Might be of interest to you.

[https://microship.com/meet-datawake/](https://microship.com/meet-datawake/)

~~~
ChuckMcM
That is pretty cool, I have not seen it. I knew he was getting something new
but this is pretty cool!

Steve Roberts and I have been friends since the 80's. Back in the Winnebikeo
days he showed me how to create fiberglass enclosures using glass over
corrugated cardboard structures.

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smaili
That is a really heavy ad with a complete black out modal overlay and the main
prize front and center for all readers to witness :)

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ShabbyDoo
I presume the audio sources would have been bugs placed in nearby structures,
etc.?

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skellertor
To have this sitting in front of my house would be perfect, seeing that my
WIFI SSID is SURVEILLANCE_VAN_53! Seeing old police cruiser around are all too
common. That would be great to see auctions that provided old FBI surveillance
vehicles.

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gordo4
Are you in North Virginia by chance? Or is that SSID a common joke?

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chasedehan
Thing sold for $18,700, who would spend that much on one?

~~~
stuntkite
Someone who really wants to monitor some things but doesn't have time to roll
their own?

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rokhayakebe
Agent 20. Please open the door.

Yes, Sir.

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Cyberdog
If this van's a-rockin', your civil rights are a-bein' violated.

