Earlier this week, we observed {that a} Harris Stingray was for sale on eBay for a cool $100k. Police have traditionally used these notably creepy surveillance units to grab mobile traffic out of the air through cell tower emulation. Sure, somebody was promoting considered one of these suckers for plenty of cash, and it had garnered a good quantity of curiosity on-line.
Nonetheless, it will seem that the sale of mentioned system violated eBay’s phrases of service. The platform told 404 Media that it had taken the itemizing down.
“Sustaining a trusted market is a prime precedence for eBay and we make vital investments to assist guarantee a secure shopping for and promoting expertise for our prospects,” an eBay spokesperson instructed 404 Media. “Sellers are obligated to adjust to eBay insurance policies and relevant legal guidelines and failure to take action could lead to penalties as much as, and together with, a everlasting suspension. According to our Digital Tools Coverage, we’re eradicating this itemizing and can proceed to watch {the marketplace}.”
Gizmodo reached out to eBay for added data and can replace this story if it responds.
Let’s be trustworthy, you in all probability didn’t wish to personal a Stingray anyway. To begin with, it’s not completely clear whether or not utilizing this factor as a civilian could be totally authorized. And it wasn’t even essentially a functioning system. The itemizing mentioned that it was untested, “bought as is,” and didn’t even include a how-to handbook—that means that, hypothetically, you would’ve been shopping for a damaged $100k machine whose inside machinations would’ve been inscrutable to the surface observer. Chances are high, even when it did work, you’ll’ve used it a couple of times, after which, like all bizarre impulse buys, it will’ve sat in one of many murkier corners of your storage, gathering mud.