Greg In The Desert

I’m sleeping on the couch tonight because I have a bunch of crap on the bed. I get settled in and start to doze off when I get a loud nock at the door. That freaks me out. I don’t have unannounced visitors at the house at this time of night. I look through the crack in the blinds and I see a Rio Rancho Police patch.

Yikes! I search around for my pants. I open the door and there are two Rio Rancho cops with flashlights out. They ask my name then ask me if I know a few other people. Never heard the names. Then they ask how long I lived here, if anyone else lives here, etc. Eventually, they realize I’m not the droids they’re looking for.

Another lady comes out of the darkness with paperwork and they start discussing it. Not sure what was going on but I suspect they were trying to serve warrants. They ask me a few more questions then they decide to leave. I’m sure they also ran my plates since they asked if that was my truck.

I’ll give them this, they sure are stealthy. I heard several cars drive off but I didn’t hear a single thing when they came to the house, except for nock on the door.

Now I have to try to get back to sleep.

Channel 7 in Southern California has a news report (from October 4th) with Ken Fairbanks of SmartLabs, who makes all the Insteon gear I write about. Along with the article is a video showing some of the stuff Home Automation can do. Its a short clip but shows some interesting things, like the control of blinds (which I haven’t figure out how to do yet).

You don’t need Insteon to do the stuff in the video.

There’s been talk about a Montatna’s Judge rulling that lets law officals sort through someone’s trash, who also says that he fears 1984 is upon us. To you fearful internet reader, I make this recommendation: Get a shredder.

This case was about the cops finding residue of meth making chemicals in the trash of a person. It seems that the fact that these were in his trash couldn’t have been enough evidence alone to convict him, and that the cops wouldn’t have gone looking in his trash if they didn’t have some suspicions or other evidence to begin with. It seems unlikely that the cops have the man power to do “random trash checks” or that it would be highly sought out job.

I think the cops digging through your trash is the least of your worries. Thieves digging through your trash is probably more of a problem, where they will take information about you. Your social security number, Address, name, those credit card applications (and guess what, the don’t care about the legality of it). All of that can be used to steal your identity. Get yourself a shredder and destroy all that information before you put it in your trash, and you wont have to worry about the cops or the thieves getting into your business.

Is putting evidence of your illegal activities in the trash any different than having the blinds open so people can see you doing it in your house? I say no. If your trying to hide your illegal activities in your trash, your pretty stupid. You have bigger problems and your going to get what’s coming to you anyways.