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I am 10% of the way to my goal of paying off my Federally ordered restitution for my participation in #operationpayback. As promised, I'll now tell you the story about the time the FBI arrested me, and why I can't stand the Red Hot Chili Peppers anymore. https://www.gofundme.com/f/oppayback
In October 2013, I was coming to the end of a ten day stretch at my new job. I was working for a company that provided direct care & behavioral support services to folks with severe autism and developmental delays. They'd asked me to take a promotion and move back to my hometown
We had been building a group home program that allowed these folks with developmental delays to live in less restrictive residential settings. They got to live and be part of their communities instead of being resigned to the concrete walls of an institution. #operationpayback
The home was understaffed, and I'd been working for ten days straight, including some graveyard shifts. On October 8th, 2013, my focus was less on my job and more on my phone. My sister was getting ready to give birth to my second niece. And I'd gotten a call from the FBI.
I didn't think they cared. It'd been two years since the FBI showed up at my door waving their guns, tearing through my worldly possessions, and carting off my computer. And now they were offering to give that PC back. https://twitter.com/neonheretic/status/1290486863812157440?s=20
The FBI agent on the line said he'd call back the next day. I didn't think much of it, as I'd had a crack lawyer helping try to get my possession back. After a fourteen hour shift, I rushed to the maternity ward to be with my family while my sister gave birth. #operationpayback
The next day, the FBI called back, saying if I came into their office, I could have my old computer back. Say, tomorrow morning before my shift? I agreed, eager to retrieve some personal data, not that I was going to let any files from that computer anywhere near my new PC.
Shortly after that call ended, word came across twitter that a new #Anonymous indictment had hit the web. I and 12 others, including Dennis "owen" Collins, were to be arrested for "conspiracy to damage a protected computer system". #operationpayback
That's right, we weren't being charged with actually hacking anything. We were being charged with TALKING about hacking, and telling people to join chat rooms where people discussed hacks, and activism. #operationpayback
I finished reading the indictment. My phone rang. The FBI. "So you've, uh, seen the Internet, I suppose?". Of course I had. Sheepishly, the agent on the line admitted that he wasn't actually going to give any of my property back, and actually he was going to have to arrest me
A wave of determination washed over me. I'd had three years to prepare myself mentally for this moment. I had known from the moment I decided to work with #Anonymous that I was likely to garner Federal scrutiny #operationpayback
But my best friend had not had to face that reality yet. And that morning in October, she was the one who had to take me to the FBI office on the top floor of a local bank. She had no idea whether she was going to see me again after she dropped me off.
The FBI agents kept assuming she was my girlfriend. A guy can't have a platonic relationship? As if. Give your girlfriend your keys, cell phone, and wallet, you can't take them with you. Let your girlfriend write her phone # on your arm so you can get ahold of her
Alright, now say your goodbyes. Girlfriend or no, seeing me in shackles and cuffs was going to be too much for her to see, so the FBI sent her out of the room, so courteous. #operationpayback
Now at that point, the government was shut down. Remember when we worried about trivialities like the debt ceiling? So the Federal building in my town was shuttered. We were going to have to drive 3 and a half hours to the north before I could appear in court #operationpayback
So here I was, cuffed and chained, stuck in a car with an FBI agent who is offering to let me change the radio station. I DON'T talk to cops, so I didn't suggest anything. We ended up listening to the greatest rock hits of the 90s as we sped through the middle of nowhere.
To this day, I cannot hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers without thinking of the worst road trip ever. #operationpayback
And I still have no idea why the Feds, if they were afraid I was going to run to Canada, so much that they lied to me about giving my computer back to get me in their office on false pretenses, why did they drive me 3 hours closer to the Canadian border. #operationpayback
When we finally made it to the Great Falls Federal Building, the U.S. Marshals booked me. They photographed my tattoo, a celtic spiral, on my arm. My next tattoo is going to be on my ass, so if they book me again, they have to photograph my butt. #operationpayback
At that point I'd grown out a handlebar mustache. I'd put wax in it that morning before I left the house. Before my mug shot, I reached up through my hand cuffs and twisted the ends so they curled like a vaudevillian villain. I grinned evilly as the camera flashed.
They led me, still cuffed, to a cell. The government was shut down so lunch was a three day old sack lunch. I choked down the bologna from the sandwich and drank a slightly chunky chocolate milk. #operationpayback
Sitting in that cell, with chains around my ankles, and cuffs on my wrists, I was filled with a sense of euphoria. I realized that they weren't going to be able to break my spirit. I have never felt so free as I did in that moment. #operationpayback
After three and a half hours in the car with Agent Grunge, and another two in a holding cell, Agent Grunge showed up again to tell me the Judge was ready to see me. The Judge told me I was due in court in DC in a week. Til then I was free to go. The whole hearing took 5 minutes!
As I left the courtroom, temporarily a free man, Agent Grunge approached me. He explained that while the courts were obligated to provide transportation TO my hearing, they had no obligation to get me HOME. #operationpayback
To refresh: I was three and a half hours away from my home town. And I had no phone and no wallet. I made my way to the bus station, hoping to figure out some way to buy a greyhound ticket home. Except Greyhound had bailed on Montana, & the Feds had shut down the alternative
So I wasn't even going to be able to take the bus home. I had one option. I asked a shop clerk where the library was. I made my way there, and from the public pcs, I accessed my twitter account. I DM'd one of my followers, an Anon who lived in the area. #operationpayback
That Anon bought me lunch at a local diner, and then her and her husband drove me the entire three and a half hours home, without any second thought, and definitely without any planning. It must have been 9 at night when I finally got home. #operationpayback
And they still had the return trip after that.
I went home and passed out. It was two days before I was able to get ahold of my friend and let her know I wasn't being held. She was in a panic the whole time. #operationpayback
So now you know why I change the station when the radio starts playing Californication. Please donation to my crowdfund so I can finally be free of Federal interference in my life. https://www.gofundme.com/f/oppayback
