Stavon

Are you from Gary Indiana?

I am not, all I know about Indiana is Indiana Jones.

matt

A little too obvious maybe? My neighbor granted a law enforcement organization permission to park a surveillance truck on his property. Some things I learned; 1) the cameras and mics have a range of several hundred yards 2) No one gets out when the vehicle parks 3)You could not see any of the surveillance equipment from the exterior of the conversion van

nearly-evil

It is a news van, probably an independent or contract company since it lacks markings. The thing on top is a short range broadcasting antenna, to broadcast news reports back to the station. Unless the NSA has started broadcasting its black bag operations there is nothing to worry about here.

rupertmandrake

The bay area's fox affiliate, KTVU, has vans just like this - white and unmarked. As a friend who worked there once told me when I asked about them being so non-descript, "You know what would happen to us if we were driving around the bay area in a van w/a fox logo on it? Eggs, tomatoes, and worse would be constantly flung at us..."

Stavon

This adds up quite well. It doesn't explain the camera though.

Gamerdog6482

News van would explain the camera too - if something blows up in front of you and you're a news van would you want to miss it?

It's...strange, but not totally unbelievable.

Stavon

Better steal the thing on the roof, it looks like it's worth more than a set of used tires.

Gamerdog6482

Let's do some process of elimination here.

The thingy on top looks like some sort of...thingy. My first thought is a cell phone signal interceptor - this can easily be tested if you have access to the immediate area of the van and an Android cell phone. There's apps that let you see which tower you're connected to, and if it's an interceptor then the app will give you garbage/unknown data for the tower.

EDIT: Is that a motherfucking camera pointing towards the building?

Okay, forget process of elimination, this is definitely some sort of surveillance van.

camelToe

The thingy on top looks like some sort of...thingy

Thingy . Towards the right hand side of it, looks like a dish, it has a parabolic shape to it, with a hockey puck shaped thing pointing at it, either a transmitter/receiver. Inside the van, a clue is the vent at the bottom left, which would support the idea of there being some hardware in there in need of cooling.

Is that a motherfucking camera pointing towards the building?

Its not mounted on the building, as there are tree branches between it and the building.

All in all, its hardly covert, just unmarked (it could be marked with a TV Crew type logo if it wanted to explain the gear on the roof). If it didn't want to be seen, all the gear could be housed inside the van and still do its business at that short a range.

Looks like a party van to me.

Stavon

phone signal interceptor - this can easily be tested

No. It's not possible to know who listens to radio signals.

You possibly are thinking of so called IMSI catchers, those can't be checked per app AFAIK.

If you use Android or iOS it doesn't even matter, all your data is accessible by the US governent.

Figaro

What the fuck is that?

Stavon

It's a pic of a white van parked in front of the EFF office. That's a good point to start conspiracy theories on who owns the van, who sent it and why they did.

Figaro

I obviously mean the thing on the van, smartass

jerry

Don't get your panties in a wad bud it's probably the most logical thing; a broadcasting antenna. Like what news fans have. That ones in compact mode for when it's not in use