Irrigation Controller Stolen, Wirelessly Rescues Itself

wooferhound sends along an amusing piece about thieves who got run over by technology and never knew what hit them. "A Rain Master Eagle-i Irrigation Controller recently stolen out of a housing development just outside of Tucson traveled nearly 80 miles before rescuing itself. The smart controller is now back in place on the wall where it was originally pinched... In this day and age, something that may look passive like an irrigation controller may not be so passive. The thieves didn't realize they were removing equipment that features 2-way wireless communications via the Internet. Three weeks later, the unexpected happened. The Maintenance Supervisor noticed a signal coming in from the stolen controller. He thought it was kind of odd that it was up and running... Whoever had stolen it had plugged it back in."

Comments

Electronic Timer

[belthize]

    Phoned home.

Belthize

Will be expected soon

[alohatiger]

Any electronic device that cost several thousand dollars will be expected to be wireless and have GPS. You'll be able to login and check to see that your air conditioner, refrigerator and water heater are still at your house.

Instead of being caught with incriminating lock picks and bolt cutters, crooks will have their anti-GPS and anti-wireless equipment trip them up.

Re:Will be expected soon

[jamesh]

Any electronic device that cost several thousand dollars will be expected to be wireless and have GPS.

And for devices under several thousand dollars, i'll make a fortune selling fake antennas and stickers that say "this device is protected by gps and will alert the authorities if it is moved", and "smile for the camera" :)

Re:Will be expected soon

[jamesh]

you can be held seriously liable for claiming that you have surveillance video when you don't

Ah. You need one of my other stickers then... try one of the following:

"These labels were not placed here by the owner of this equipment"

"By reading this label, you agree not to bring any action against the owner of this equipment for any claims, false or otherwise, made by this or any other label on this equipment."

"This label and any others attached to this equipment is void in Texas and any other state with stupid laws."

"this device is not protected by gps and will not alert the authorities if it is moved"

"smile for the fake camera"

Re:huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Better yet, stop trying to grow lawns in the desert.

I would have gotten even first

[IronWilliamCash]

If he could control the thing remotely, I would have sent a signal to flood the crops during the night, that way the next morning the theives would have had a nasty little suprise :) Then you go in and get it back.

Where's Scooby Doo?

[Migraineman]

I was totally let-down by the end of the story. This was a perfect example of amateur sleuthing, which should have resulted in a thief being apprehended at the bottom of the hour, only to mutter "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you pesky kids and your ubiquitous ad-hoc wireless networking."

Medical devices will be wireless soon too...

[Dareth]

Say for instance your grandfather has a pacemaker with wireless.

$>ping grandpa
No Host Found.

Oh no, GRANDPA!!!!

Re:I like the thought of this

[Sponge Bath]

...cross it with one of the store's shopping carts, the wheels lock up.

Nothing to worry aboot.
Bubbles will just get Julian and Ricky to shoot the wheels out of that dirty cocksucker.

New twist on old theme

[SuperKendall]

Brings a new twist on the old "Is your refrigerator running?" prank call:

"Running? Let me check... why yes, about 30MPH it seems on 6th avenue. Thanks for the heads up!"

Oblig Simpsons...

[xtracto]

Frink: Why it's the AT-5000 Auto-Dialer. My very first patent.
              Aw, would you listen to the gibberish they've got you
              saying, it's sad and alarming. You were designed to alert
              schoolchildren about snow days and such. Well, let's get
              you home to Frinky. Hope your wheels still work, bw-hey.