LOUISVILLE, Kent. – Did the FBI hire a bunch of ‘geeks’ to become ‘narcs?’
That’s what a guy in California is claiming after he got busted for child porn on his computer…..after dropping it off with the ‘Geek Squad’ at his local Best Buy store.
You see, the computer was shipped off to the Geek Squad center in Kentucky for repairs.
“They have computers shipped in, they do the work and ship them back out to whatever satellite location they picked them up from,” computer expert Steve Schardein explained.
The accused man claims the FBI hired the ‘geeks’ on the squad to go snooping for child porn.
But….is that legal?
“My first reaction was it’s not right,” constitutional lawyer Jon Fleischaker said.
“I was a little bit surprised, I guess,” Schardein shared. “At the same time, there’s a reasonable expectation that when you drop your computer off with somebody they have access to your stuff.”
But Fleischaker says ‘active searching’ without your consent violates your Fourth Amendment right to privacy. “It’s a constitutional right,” he insisted. “It’s like saying if you’re guilty, I can do whatever to find out you’re guilty.”
The key question is whether the illegal images were found during the course of normal work– which is legal– or if they were specifically searched for?
“You have testimony about where was it and how did you see it,” Fleischaker suggested.
So, where does that leave your computer repair?
“If you don’t know that you can trust the person who’s working on it, you shouldn’t be dropping it off with that person or that company,” Schardein cautioned. “You should look for somebody you trust.”
But some wonder….if you can’t trust a ‘geek,’ who can you trust?!
