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LAPD warns residents after spike in burglaries using Wi-Fi jammers that disable security cameras, smart doorbells (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Los Angeles Police Department has warned residents to be wary of thieves using technology to break into homes undetected. High-tech burglars have apparently knocked out their victims' wireless cameras and alarms in the Los Angeles Wilshire-area neighborhoods before getting away with swag bags full of valuables. An LAPD social media post highlights the Wi-Fi jammer-supported burglaries and provides a helpful checklist of precautions residents can take.

Criminals can easily find the hardware for Wi-Fi jamming online. It can also be cheap, with prices starting from $40. However, jammers are illegal to use in the U.S.

We have previously reported on Wi-Fi jammer-assisted burglaries in Edina, Minnesota. Criminals deployed Wi-Fi jammer(s) to ensure homeowners weren't alerted of intrusions and that incriminating video evidence wasn't available to investigators.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (6 children)

However, jammers are illegal to use in the U.S.

What is the point of adding this bit for an article about burglaries?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago

They should make burglaries illegal too!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Because it's relevant? Is this not factual information that readers may or may not have known?

The availability of hardware changes by a not-negligent degree based on the legality of acquiring it.

Curious readers likely find information indicating that these shouldn't be readily available at your local big box store to be pertinent information.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

It does and it doesn't.

Any microwave with the door rigged open is a super effective Wi-Fi jammer. Everything coalesced on 2.4GHz instead of licensing their own radio spectrum making absolute mountains of overlap. It's harder jam nearly everything else. ( Not much harder, software radios are super cheap, but you at least need more electronics knowledge than a screwdriver and tape. )

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

They're extra illegal!!!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Because jammers are not inherently burglary tools. It provides extra information about the technology in discussion.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Ostensibly harder to obtain when they're illegal to stock and sell retail.

Same reason why you see folks in Japan and the UK obsessed with knife crime rather than gun crime. Obtaining a gun is more difficult to do legally, so fewer people carry them.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Because Californians love writing laws as a knee jerk reaction to the crime de jour.

Some pearl-clutching local will go to their state legislature and demand that WiFi jamming be banned despite the fact that the FCC is all over that shit. They keep passing redundant gun control laws in the same way for the same reasons.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

While I don't dispute that California has a tendency to have obnoxious firearms law:

https://legalbeagle.com/7402613-california-sword-law.html

Surprisingly, it's entirely legal to carry a sword in public in California, as long as you are the wearer is not brandishing it or concealing it. In other words, if the sword is carried in a sheath suspended from the wearer's waist, it is legal to have in public.

That being said, from memory going through California's code, I believe that they explicitly have katana restrictions, along with some other restrictions on Japanese weapons, probably for the same reason that a number of states have switchblade restrictions: there were movies that hyped up the "gangster" aspect.

kagis

Hmm. No, and it looks like the nunchucks ban was repealed during the last few years, so they may have re-legalized katana carry along with that.

https://usanunchaku.com/california-legalized-nunchaku/

For over 50 years the state of California has made nunchaku illegal or restricted to only state licensed martial arts schools. As of 9/30 2021 this restriction in California has been repealed with the passing of CA Senate Bill No 827 and has resulted in California Legalized Nunchaku for everyone.

Now all California residents may purchase nunchaku without restriction or needing to be a member of a martial arts school training in the art of nunchaku. Here at American Nunchaku Company we welcome our new and old Californian customers and invite you to stop by and check out our collection of custom handmade nunchaku.

Shruikens -- ninja stars -- remain banned in California, though.

https://casetext.com/statute/california-codes/california-penal-code/part-6-control-of-deadly-weapons/title-3-weapons-and-devices-other-than-firearms/division-9-shuriken/section-22410-unlawful-manufacture-import-keeping-for-sale-offer-for-sale-giving-lending-or-possession-of-shuriken

One can but imagine the plague of ninja being held back by this legislation.