# Omaha Bomb Squad called on hobby gold refiner



## silversaddle1 (Mar 18, 2015)

I guess the police were serving a warrant for some child porn stuff and seen what they thought were bomb making materials. Bomb squad said no bomb making stuff here, just chemicals used for refining gold from computers. Hummmmm, I hope this was not one of our members.

http://www.ketv.com/news/man-arrested-on-three-counts-of-child-pornography-tuesday-afternoon/31848210


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## Palladium (Mar 18, 2015)

Not trying to defend the guy, but does anyone else see something funny there?


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 18, 2015)

I breathed a sigh of relief when I read:


> The chemicals turned out to be legal and used for breaking down precious metals. It was determined that the chemicals were legally possessed and used.


That could have very easily been one of those stories that spins out of control and casts a dark shadow on what we do.

I hope he's not a member too. Child pornographers are the lowest form of life I know of.

Dave


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## Anonymous (Mar 18, 2015)

He's been accused of being a child pornographer Dave. 

I don't see a trial and conviction yet do you mate? God this trial by media is hypocrisy in the extreme these days- I can't help but think the world is going all McCarthy i.e. You're accused therefore you're guilty.


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 18, 2015)

spaceships said:


> He's been accused of being a child pornographer Dave.
> 
> I don't see a trial and conviction yet do you mate? God this trial by media is hypocrisy in the extreme these days- I can't help but think the world is going all McCarthy i.e. You're accused therefore you're guilty.


I didn't say he was guilty of anything. I simply said I hope he's not a member, and stated my view on child pornographers, the subject at the heart of the story. I didn't say that he was one based on a news report. No trial by media, hypocricy, or McCarthyism.

Dave


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## Anonymous (Mar 18, 2015)

Aha! Yes on second reading your post was very cleverly worded! :roll:


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## macfixer01 (Mar 18, 2015)

I don't know what subtle point I'm missing here? Considering his name though, good thing for him they already had a sensational story to run with. Otherwise they probably would have labeled him a potential terrorist too!


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## Long Shot (Mar 18, 2015)

Dave and Spaceships - thanks for clarifying the man has only been accused. I would like to correct both of you as well when you say "pornographer" - this implies he produces this stuff. Reading the article, he has been accused of having in his possession three images apparently uploaded to Google Drive. This doesn't even mean he did it! Anybody with access to his computer could have done that. Maybe, just maybe, his wife is pissed at him - from experience I know how spiteful women can be. The whole story is not revealed but the man's reputation is surely ruined, guilty or not. I am just glad that the police showed common sense and didn't point bomb making at him for having what many of us have around, it is already hard enough to get the things we need to perform our hobby without that.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Mar 18, 2015)

FrugalRefiner said:


> spaceships said:
> 
> 
> > He's been accused of being a child pornographer Dave.
> ...



If he is one and gets convicted (like I hope he does) the inmates will deal with him their own way.


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## Geo (Mar 20, 2015)

I would like to throw a monkey wrench in this. The guy scraps computer junk. He obviously has an offsite storage (cloud service). I have taken old HD's and hooked them up to my computer to test them. Depending on the cloud drive and his personal settings, the cloud could have synced files from an old scrap hard-drive to the cloud drive. I can't tell you how many times I have wiped HD's and re-used them. I have found drives with homemade "stuff" on them and (some people think tossing old electronics in the dumpster is safe :roll: ) had to destroy the drives with fire for fear of being found in possession of "stupid stuff". Formatting a drive does not completely wipe it. We will never know but, he has a better chance of that scenario than the alternative.


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## rickbb (Mar 20, 2015)

Geo is correct, I deal with many used HDD's. I've drilled multiple large holes in many a HDD and quickly too. 

I use an old PC that is NOT connected to any network or removable storage device of any kind to test any HDD I may want to reuse. You only need to get a nasty virus on your home PC/network once to learn that lesson.

I used to be surprised at the garbage I sometimes find left on drives. People are just stupid. The internet is covered up with un-delete and un-format utilities that work very well. The only way to really get rid of data on a drive you may want to keep is to use a wipe utility that meets a DoD spec which requires over writing the drive with random numbers 7 times, (or more), even the blank spaces.

This guy may or may not be the original downloader of this, time will tell. But this should serve as a caution to anyone who gets used HDD's, take care in how you handle them.


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## Palladium (Mar 20, 2015)

Remember the conservation awhile back on the board where i described the power of an accusation! Which is what this is so far. Time will tell if the guys guilty and if he is i hope hell has a special place for him. With that being said you have to follow the logic. Seems like from the neighborhood and the neighbors that these are just average people. But as we know most people convicted of these type of crimes hide under that assumption. So what i look at and question is facts. It seems all this started with a tip from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that he had downloaded 3 images of child pornography. Now how in the hell would a private, non-profit organization like that know what he had download or that it was just 3 images? Most people who do child pornography are into it pretty heavy and have a lot more than 3 images, we shall see. I could understand them running across an actual physical abuse case in their normal everyday work they do, but how did they obtain this information? If the site he got it from was a private site and he's a private individual how did they get into the data stream to 1. Identify the content 2. Identify the source 3. Know that the information was then uploaded to the cloud. I understand how all that can be done with the proper government tools at your disposal, but a private individual which is what the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is would be breaking multiple laws. Then they reported it to police who got a search warrant and arrested the guy. It would be interesting when his lawyer argues the probable cause for that warrant based on the information to say the least. Were they hosting the website in question? We know it wasn't a police operation that alerted them to this. The files could have been named anything and you wouldn't know they were child pornography until you had downloaded them and opened the file at which point you would have saw what they were and deleted them. Again! I have no love for people who exploit children for any purpose, but something just seems weird about the way this went down.


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## justinhcase (Mar 20, 2015)

all my P.C.'s and laptop's are second hand.
I had a laptop for a number of years but could never understand why I was always short on hard drive space.
Despite the property display saying it was half empty.
Little did I know the previous owner had filled up most of the drive with a hidden directory full of very bad 80's still's..Nothing illicit but just sad stuff to save really.
It took me six months before I found it.which just go's to show you will never know for sure.
Much like when one is buying gold from the public it is best to approach the police for advice before any problems arise.
If you are going to be in a position or receiving quantity's of drive's it would be best to approach your local constabulary and ask for advice.
It is better to have a prearranged chanle to hand such thing's in to the proper authority's than to destroy them.
I understand it is quite frightening to be involved in such things in any way but it is a crime to destroy evidence.
Plus you have a morel duty to help apprehend and prosecute such people when you come into possession of such information.


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## METLMASHER (Mar 20, 2015)

justinhcase said:


> I understand it is quite frightening to be involved in such things in any way but it is a crime to destroy evidence.
> Plus you have a morel duty to help apprehend and prosecute such people when you come into possession of such information.



Excellent point, one I had not even considered. I hope anyone finding this type of filth on old drives, will turn it in to the police immediately, and the original scum who did the deed, is sent to prison for their crimes.


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## artart47 (Mar 20, 2015)

Hi Friends!
I was getting the computor scrap from the city of racine for a couple years untill they signed with a contractor. Just after I stopped getting their computors, an incedent occured with the old mayor. he was a real ass and brought his home computor to the city tech guy and told him to fix it. there was an argument about the legality of him working on his private computor but he insisted. So, as he started checking out infected files, he found all the emails and pics from young girls he had been sneaking off to see. he brought a detective in to see and they gave him back the fixed machine.
A short while later he went to a Milwaukee mall and met with the Brookfield police instead of the 13yr old girl. That was the end of the mayor.
It is a perfect example of what you can get on a hard drive. If the tech guy would have trashed the unit it would have been in my pick up bin. I woundered! What would the Mayor have offered me to buy that trashed computor back from me? Ha Ha!
You can google "mayor of racine arrested" How can someone be soooo stupid?
artart47


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## GotTheBug (Mar 20, 2015)

A proper use for old hard drives. Yes I did this, first one was for my daughter and more to come when the invasive little buggers poke their heads out this spring.


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 20, 2015)

I love ant tunnel casts! That is so cool.

Dave


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## Long Shot (Mar 20, 2015)

And all of the above points to the problem that the guy may be outright innocent. At my workplace all old hard drives are sent out for shredding. This mainly to protect the information of the public that would be on them (municipality). I agree that if the accused is a child perv he should get the full hammer of the law but it may be that he is dead innocent and it bothers me that because he is accused, it doesn't matter, many will have judged him based on that and if he is innocent it will not matter because he will never be able to live that down if he remains in that community. Someone mentioned McCarthyism and I am afraid it is still alive and well.


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## jason_recliner (Mar 20, 2015)

rickbb said:


> I used to be surprised at the garbage I sometimes find left on drives. People are just stupid. The internet is covered up with un-delete and un-format utilities that work very well. The only way to really get rid of data on a drive you may want to keep is to use a wipe utility that meets a DoD spec which requires over writing the drive with random numbers 7 times, (or more), even the blank spaces.


Agreed, theoretically it's possible to read the differential magnetic remnant erased a few times with all 0's or 1's. For that reason, I think success also largely depends whether there was anything predating your target data. A funny photo of a cat on the same disk sector before the deviant filth overwrote it, is going to cloud your results. At best, a plaintext document with a few scattered unreadable characters could be deciphered. 

I will give a million kilograms of gold* to anyone who can retrieve any recognisable part of a photo I have replaced with _random_ data in just _one_ pass.

Because "Nixon tapes". The DoD people should stop watching CSI. 

* Offer expires at noon.


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## rickbb (Mar 21, 2015)

METLMASHER said:


> ...... I hope anyone finding this type of filth on old drives, will turn it in to the police immediately, and the original scum who did the deed, is sent to prison for their crimes.



The problem is knowing where it came from, often I don't. It's just in a garbage bin or stacked in the corner of a warehouse, someone gave it to so and so because it was just laying around, and so on. I don't look at all the drives I come across, just the ones that are new/large enough to have a resale value or for personal use.

And when a opportunity to grab a headline lands in a local law dogs lap is he going to care about my story "I found it in the garbage"? Not a chance I'm willing to take since I know the local LEO's all too well. (Reflated to too many of them.) I'd be the one in the headline going to jail and getting talked about of forums like this one.


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