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Police Return Seized Computers, Trashed

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I'm all for the "down with the man" stuff but I find it really hard to believe that the police did this to this guy's hardware. Seriously, look at that picture, that is years of neglect...nasty! How could the cops have done that?!?

“What concerns me the most about my property, is the condition it is now in… the way it was seized and bagged and how it was probably handled and transported to goodness knows where, the thought just horrifies me,” he adds.
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Judging by the amount of dust and gunk inside, this guy didnt care about the machine in the first place.

Show interest in your stuff and maybe they would have treated it better. That thing is disgusting.
 
While Id need to see higher res photos to confirm if you look closely(channeling dexter) There's no splashing. That looks to me like typically longterm smoker dirt. If it were random splashes or dirt and what not I'd buy it but I've worked on PC's like looked exactly like that. usually cramped area on carpet indoor smoker.
 
That faceplate molding is horribly browned... that's really difficult to accomplish in even two years.
You would seriously need to tie it to the ceiling of a bar to get it that dirty in two years.
 
Gotta agree with you there Steve. All the cops did was disassemble it and fail to put it back together (about 3 minutes and a few screws). The bigger problem is the obvious years of HEAVY smoking and neglect. This guy has way bigger problems than the cops not sticking a couple minor parts in place. I have worked on end user machines for over a decade now, I have seen more then a few like this. I no longer will touch them myself. If it is that bad, you can take it to someone who is desperate for work or buy a new machine.
 
Imagine being the police detective / forensic team assigned to get the data off that grubby POS. :eek: The cops probably didn't want to touch that crap to put it back together. Hazmat suit please! :D
 
The cop may have passed out from fumes and wasn't able to put it back together.
 
I call BS also. Why would the police department remove the power supply? I mean, wouldn't they just remove the HDD, Retrieve the data using some low level packet/recovery software and then reassemble it again? That system wreaks of neglect and nicotine damage. I see systems like those every day (old, yellowed from age/cigarettes and ill treaded).
 
For someone who likely never opened the case and is not computer hardware literate, having a system that was in one piece and working returned like that would be a nightmare not just a few minutes of putting things back together.

The level of dust is scary though. I've pulled feathers out of a friends system. She has lots of birds. I think some managed to nest in the box somehow.
 
Reading the news item the computers were in police custody for 2 years. Time enough for that kind of dirt to build up if they were not properly stored.

I'd like to see pics from before though.
 
The police didn't do that. The disassembled state I can pin on them but not the years of nicotine stains and soot that appears in the picture. They couldn't have done that within the time frame the police probably had the machines.
 
i think everyone missed the point. the police in this case had not seen a crime. they where sent in to collect evidence. it is shocking that everyone is ok with what they did. they could have seized your shit, trashed it and returned it. it's not like the police have never made a mistake before. that is why you treat people as innocent until proven guilty.

some of the folding crew hardware would raise suspicion. police walks in and see farms of PC's and the first thing they would think is HACKER! this cant be legit.
 
According to one of the comments, what British police do in cases like this is make an image of the hard-drive then never touch the system again. Obviously that doesn't even warrant removing any of the other components.
 
Torrentfreak is blocked at work so judging by just that one picture, that person looks like a damn slob. Is the carpet coming loose from the stairs or is that some junky throw rug and the drywall around the door molding looks roughed up as well as some water damage on the lower area. Maybe this is just his nasty basement?

I'm gonna go with: person that has never ever opened a PC and has no idea what one looks like after it has been smoked around.
 
djoye said:
Torrentfreak is blocked at work so judging by just that one picture, that person looks like a damn slob. Is the carpet coming loose from the stairs or is that some junky throw rug and the drywall around the door molding looks roughed up as well as some water damage on the lower area. Maybe this is just his nasty basement?

I'm gonna go with: person that has never ever opened a PC and has no idea what one looks like after it has been smoked around.
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The PC was with the police (and FACT apparently?) for 2 years.
 
looks like someone poured sand inside the box!?!?
 
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That computer looks like a POS anyways. I HATE working on smokers computers, so effing nasty.
 
Friend of mine in high school hacked the schools website and got his PC taken by the FBI (he posted gay porn on the web site)

He got it back like a year later and it was heavily trashed, bent, broken, etc...
 
You think thats bad, he should be lucky he wasn't falsely accused of a crime and then had firearms in his home (I know, its the UK) he would probably never get his property back, not be restituted. Too many stories exist in the US of property seized that goes missing or is purposely destroyed before a person is convicted or absolved of wrongdoing.

Even worse if it s a federal bit, but at least they wont confiscate your dog that they just shot.
 
zomby said:
sad = sand (again for what ever reason the edit button doesnt show up when posting in this forum?)
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Afraid it is not sand, that is what cigarette tar laden dust looks like inside a PC.

Oh yes that is the same thing going on in your lungs as well.

The worst part of working on a smokers machine is the chemicals absorbed simply though touching it. My hands would literally go numb after working on a smokers machine for any length of time. That is why as mentioned before, I will never work on one of those again. To those that say 2 years is enough time, Only if the machine was in a spot where someone was sitting beside it going through a couple packs a day with little to no ventilation. The reality is it sat inside an evidence locker which while dusty could in no way replicate the conditions necessary to cause that.
 
entropy13 said:
According to one of the comments, what British police do in cases like this is make an image of the hard-drive then never touch the system again. Obviously that doesn't even warrant removing any of the other components.
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Same thing with American police, although in my experience the police techs reckon a laptop drive is broken if it rattles:rolleyes:

That system looks like it was shit to start with, not sure if that's smokers dust, or construction dust from brickwork, maybe it's both, but the computer looks like generic gateway, or E-machines crud.
 
Looks like it sat in a warehouse and all that buildup is from dust and exhaust from the forklifts.
 
Well as a member of FS since '03 I'm a bit bias towards Geeker.
I believe he does smoke though judging by the ashtray on the table.

Also; The equipment originally went to FACT - How long I don't know.
 
LightningCrash said:
From the pics, it was inside a bag and the bag does not appear to be degraded in any way.
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It's possible that it was only put into the bag once they had to return it.

As the article in the later paragraphs mentions, the removed PSU is most probably someone from FACT (funded by the MPAA/RIAA) having a "fit of anger" after they find nothing to help in their potential case. Which then makes it more obvious that they actually have disregard of the law too, considering they had to tamper with the evidence first before returning it.
 
entropy13 said:
It's possible that it was only put into the bag once they had to return it.

As the article in the later paragraphs mentions, the removed PSU is most probably someone from FACT (funded by the MPAA/RIAA) having a "fit of anger" after they find nothing to help in their potential case. Which then makes it more obvious that they actually have disregard of the law too, considering they had to tamper with the evidence first before returning it.
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Those are some pretty amazing detective skills you have there. All you need to see is a PSU outside of a case and you can immediately tell that someone from FACT had a fit of anger and pulled the PSU out in a moment of rage? You should work for the police.
 
The problem here is that without "before" shots, we'll never truly know how badly the systems were handled before being returned to the owner.

As for the level of dirt; I hate to break this to all of you, but YES it's entirely possible that in the two years the system has been in the possession of the police for it to get that bad. In the right conditions it can only take a month...

How do I know this? Well, many years ago I used to work for a computer store that custom built systems to order. One day we got back a system that had been sold not even a month prior because the system was shutting down (if memory serves me right, it was an i486 DX4/100). The first thing I noticed about the system was that instead of the case being the nice bright beige that it was went it went out the door, it had a yellow/brown tinge to it. I proceeded to pick up the system and bring it back to my work bench to diagnose what was wrong with it.

At that point, as I carried the system, I noticed something else: I could smell cigarette smoke on the system.

So I put the system down on the work bench and grab a screw driver to start the operation. I literally started getting a cold sweat and light headed.

Folks, I was getting a nicotine buzz/contact high from the case. No, I'm not lying about that either.

When I cracked open the case I immediately saw what was wrong: the CPU fan (and the entire insides of the system) had a layer of nicotine in them, and the nicotine had collected all the dust, forming a layer of insulation that would have made Owens-Corning jealous. The fan itself had completely seized up from the gunk.

Keep in mind that THIS SYSTEM WASN'T EVEN A MONTH OLD.

My co-workers and I ended up making a concoction of Fantastik and Formula 409 to clean the case. The stuff worked great; you could literally see the nicotine being leeched out of the plastic and the metal of the case.. I had to trash the heatsink/fan though and I spent about an hour wiping away all the gunk on the motherboard.

During this whole procedure the owner of the company saw what was going on and informed the owner of the computer that stuff like this isn't covered under warranty (and we'd fix it this time, but if it came in like that again, we'd charge them parts/labor).

The point here is that in the right conditions, it's entirely possible for a system to get completely trashed from cigarette smoke. The question here though is was this caused by the police or the owner of the computer. Without before/after photo's we'll never know for sure.
 
I think I'll add my reply being in the field of seizing computers myself. I have personally seized over 15 computers so far in my "still growing" career of law enforcement. And let me tell you, I have been appalled before when i've opened the side's of these machines. Now as far as taking them apart, I can't speak for all agencies but the "national" school I attended taught us to only remove the hard drive and be respectable to the machine, no matter what state it was in, and yes there have been times before when I wanted a hazmat suit to protect me from the contents inside the box lol. and when you go serve a search warrant, yes it covers any and all digital devices.. we even had to take a PS3 and scan it once lol.

I really don't think all of that damage was from the police agency. Well let me rephrase that, I really hope that all of that damage wasn't from the police agency, because it gives the rest of us a bad name.
 
I do believe that rusting can happen in a short time in an moisten environment. I had some tools at a friend's garage for a few weeks. The garage is very moist due to the rains, little sun and no way of the moisture to get out. When I got my tools I noticed that a few tools have started to rust. That is less than a month of being in the moisten garage.
If the computer was stored in a very moisten storage environment, then within a few weeks or even less you will notice rust. I am not saying to owner did or didn't take care of their computer. But that within in a right very moisten environment in a short time this can happen.
The question is where did the law stored the computer? And how is the moisture in that storage environment? And what was the original condition of the computer when it was seized?
 
I find it hard to believe that people here seem to be okay with the fact that

A) The police had his stuff for 2 years
B) The stuff was returned obviously disassembled and missing components

Who cares whether or not it was gross beforehand? The fact that they returned his previously functioning equipment in a complete state of disrepair is ridiculous. This is one case where I believe a lawsuit is warranted. It's absurd to believe that the police can raid your house and then trash your shit and hold it for 2 years on the suspicion of a crime alone.
 
Nothing new. The police trashed my last apartment looking for something that did not exist, without a warrant and without probable cause.
 
Rizen said:
I find it hard to believe that people here seem to be okay with the fact that

A) The police had his stuff for 2 years
B) The stuff was returned obviously disassembled and missing components

Who cares whether or not it was gross beforehand? The fact that they returned his previously functioning equipment in a complete state of disrepair is ridiculous. This is one case where I believe a lawsuit is warranted. It's absurd to believe that the police can raid your house and then trash your shit and hold it for 2 years on the suspicion of a crime alone.
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I respect your opinion but, Do you really know how long a case can take? I have a "Simple" assault case that we had a trial on in 2009 and he was found guilty and sentenced in General Sessions Court. HIS Lawyer appealed the decision and it has been in criminal court for 2 years, and still has not had a 2nd trial. So evidence in the case is still in my possession and will remain in my possession until the trial is done. Even then they have to file to get an order from the judge to get the property returned to them because it was evidence used in a crime. Even if the case is dropped or the defendant is found guilty they still have to get the order. So before everyone thinks that the cops are holding it just cause they can.. you really need to look at the judicial system again.
 
Rizen said:
I find it hard to believe that people here seem to be okay with the fact that

A) The police had his stuff for 2 years
B) The stuff was returned obviously disassembled and missing components

Who cares whether or not it was gross beforehand? The fact that they returned his previously functioning equipment in a complete state of disrepair is ridiculous. This is one case where I believe a lawsuit is warranted. It's absurd to believe that the police can raid your house and then trash your shit and hold it for 2 years on the suspicion of a crime alone.
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A: They kept the stuff until the outcome of the trial was determined. This is how every case in the history of the US court system has been handled, not sure why you would expect something different.

B: Those computers are shit, its impossible to tell if they looked like that before the police took them or not. I have a shelf with 6 computers that look just like the ones in those pictures (the previous owners determined they weren't worth fixing, so they left them with me to be properly disposed of). If I was being investigated for a computer related crime, the police would have to take them as I could have data stored on them that is related to the case.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Nothing new. The police trashed my last apartment looking for something that did not exist, without a warrant and without probable cause.
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Who gave them permission to search? If you told them not without a warrant then they can't search, unless your "apartment supervisor" has it in the contract that they can have the police search at anytime. Know your laws man.. and stand up for your rights as an American.
 
Pantherboy said:
Who gave them permission to search? If you told them not without a warrant then they can't search, unless your "apartment supervisor" has it in the contract that they can have the police search at anytime. Know your laws man.. and stand up for your rights as an American.
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Don't bother, people with problems with authority will always complain about the police. Cops could be handing out gold bars and people would still bitch.

Or maybe i'm just biased because i'm an apartment owner, and the shit some of these scumbag tenants get away with is insane. The law is overwhelmingly on the side of the renter, if a neighbor complains to us, we practically have to give them 1 week notice that the police are going to show up.
 
I believe the point the person was making is that the computer should be given back to the owner with the same equipment (parts) that it had in the first place and with the same condition that it was seized. The only reason the computer should be in an different condition is if the user locked out the computer case itself. Then the law has to break the computer case to get to the drive/s for forensics. But all other forensic work can and should be done without damaging the computer, parts or loosing anything. And that the evidence should of been taken care better for the sake of the criminal case itself (hint).
 
Rizen said:
I find it hard to believe that people here seem to be okay with the fact that...
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I am simply making fun of the fact that the guy in question makes it sound like:
cops_computer1.jpg


When in fact it was more like:
cops_computer2.jpg



:)
 
Steve said:
I am simply making fun of the fact that the guy in question makes it sound like:
cops_computer1.jpg


When in fact it was more like:
cops_computer2.jpg



:)
Click to expand...

Same here. What possible reason would the police have for removing the frames from around the floppy disk drives?
 
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