Someone Is Selling a Genuine FBI Surveillance Van on EBay
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Even though the van was rather beat up. It had almost brand new tires with excellent treads on it.
my takeaway was, the cars have to be maintained really well and have reliable engines and tires, even thought they are dressed to not stand out.
BTW, the police didn't like me so intently looking at their car and they IDed me and played their intimidations game a bit.
Not true. A department I interned with would use civil asset forfeit vehicles as-is for undercover jobs.
New tires and engines aren't important; they aren't using these for pursuits, and authenticity is the #1 most important form of camoflauge in these situations-- your agent's life is often at risk. Having such obvious tells (like whitewall tires, no hubcaps on govt vehicles, etc) is a good way to get them killed and your investigation compromised.
It isn't limited to whitewalls specifically-- tire styles are passing fads like any other. When specific tires start falling out of favor with consumers, any vehicle still rocking (new) ones of the deprecated type was presumed to be part of a fleet or motor pool. Fleet procurement tends not to concern itself with staying trendy.
Police spycraft has advanced since the 60s though so to avoid these issues they borrow from the pre-auction pool.
Never thought about one of these including a toilet before, but that makes a lot of sense.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-Classic-FBI-Surveillance-Van-S...
This would be even better with built in (except non private) khazi, and you'd be able to put the kettle on when you saw your meeting attendees coming down the street on your surveillance equipment....
Back when I was in college, I actually seriously looked at buying a boat and docking it Emeryville, as the boat payments and docking fee would have been cheaper than rent. Unfortunately the marina had a 10 year wait list for live-aboard slips.
I assumed you'd stake out your parking late at night when there is lots of space and then sit all day.
He's clearly running a business and that can is just for storage but he's breaking no city rules which is shocking.
Steve Roberts and I have been friends since the 80's. Back in the Winnebikeo days he showed me how to create fiberglass enclosures using glass over corrugated cardboard structures.
Yes, Sir.