Really, You CAN’T Purchase a Stingray on eBay to Observe Your Associates and Enemies

Earlier this week, we seen {that a} Harris Stingray was for sale on eBay for a cool $100k. Police have traditionally used these notably creepy surveillance gadgets to grab mobile traffic out of the air through cell tower emulation. Sure, somebody was promoting certainly one of these suckers for plenty of cash, and it had garnered a specific amount of curiosity.

Nevertheless, it could seem that the sale of mentioned machine violated eBay’s phrases of service. The platform told 404 Media that it had taken the itemizing down.

“Sustaining a trusted market is a high precedence for eBay and we make important investments to assist guarantee a protected shopping for and promoting expertise for our clients,” an eBay spokesperson advised 404 Media. “Sellers are obligated to adjust to eBay insurance policies and relevant legal guidelines and failure to take action could lead to penalties as much as, and together with, a everlasting suspension. In keeping with our Digital Gear Coverage, we’re eradicating this itemizing and can proceed to observe {the marketplace}.”

Gizmodo reached out to eBay for added data and can replace this story if it responds.

Let’s be sincere, you most likely didn’t wish to personal a Stingray anyway. To begin with, it’s not completely clear whether or not utilizing this factor as a civilian could be solely authorized. And it wasn’t even essentially a functioning machine. The itemizing mentioned that it was untested, “bought as is,” and didn’t even include a how-to guide—which means that, hypothetically, you could possibly’ve been shopping for a damaged $100k machine whose interior machinations would’ve been inscrutable to the surface observer. Chances are high, even when it did work, you’d’ve used it a few times, after which, like all bizarre impulse buys, it could’ve sat in one of many murkier corners of your storage, gathering mud.