Sucking Up a Shop Vac to Feed Paranoia
This is not from The Onion. Best I can tell it is the absolute truth.
A Denair, California-based company called the Special Services Group, LLC won a $42,595 DEA purchase order at the end of November for a “custom Shop Vac concealment with Canon M50B.” Canon describes the M50B as a “high-sensitivity…PTZ [Pan-Tilt-Zoom] network camera” that “captures video with remarkable color and clarity, even in very low-light environments.”
And I can buy a Ring for $99. that pretty much does the same thing.
So head on out to the garage and put a blanket over your Shop Vac or take it to your next kindergarten Christmas pageant. The agents will enjoy the entertainment.
Thanks to Chloe Bear for the heads up.
Oh noes. After Kellyanne Conway derp sixed her microwave, do we really want to see how she uses a vacuum?
1So that camera gets its power from an ethernet cable. It’s built for ceiling or wall installation with a cable back to a full function server room. Wtf is inside the shop vac? Or does this install have a mile or two of cable unrolled behind it? Kinda takes the element of surprise away.
2So next time I go to the hardware store to buy a shop vac and I have a choice between the $85 model and the $42,000 model, I will probably know which way to go.
3The contract wording makes me think that it’s to make sure cleaning services behave properly in classified areas.
4I suspect it isn’t much of a vacuum.
All I know is that the vacumns the police are already using are mighty powerful without camera.
Many years ago while in/around college (UCSC) a house that had been “chain” ( no breaks from one tenat to another) rented by a stream of people who did inhale was raided.
The vac’s pull 4 ounces of pakalolo out of the front room shag carpet ( 4 to 8 years worth of spills) one must wonder what acamera would have contributed?
@slipstream Sad part is that you would be paying the extra $41K+ to ensure there was no camera.
5I wondered why my Roomba was following me around the house…
6The Internet of Things . . . shop vac talking to toaster, microwave, refrigerator and anything else digital around the house. This is when a cave starts to have great allure.
7I can’t imagine trying to hide a 5″x6″ camera inside of a shop vac. Remove the motor and replace it with a recording that goes WWHYZSHHHHHH perhaps?
8Wouldn’t this just be a wireless mini-cam you could put in a stuffed animal on the dresser, like in every other spy movie ever (Wolf of Wall Street), or whatever Ben Stiller was talking into in Meet the Fockers? Will ICE ultimately be the user of this product to round up, you know, maids and janitors?
I can’t imagine why anyone would object, you know, pffffffft, 43k per vac. This is Burn After Reading. I’ll go read the article now… Ugh… Every day I think I can’t get more depressed and shamed as a citizen, and then this.
9Is this a joke? Snopes has nothing on it. I’ll wait for Reuters or AP. Propaganda? Disinformation?
10