If you were listening to the radio or watching any Channel 15 this last week you definitely heard of this story. David lives in Mesa, Arizona and came to me via Marc Victor. David went to Marc Victor since his regular attorney was a wimp and he needed someone with some guts. Looking in the yellow pages he noticed that Marc mentioned that he is a Marine (you're never a former Marine :) and this is exactly what David wanted,... a Marine lawyer. David's problem was interesting. David had developed and massed produced a device to stop photo radar and red light cameras with the added bonus of preventing Big Bubba from tracking a user of the device. David didn't really understand just how big his invention was and who the real enemies were. David had a web page created www.loover.com and began running TV spots on Cox cable and TV 3 here in Phoenix, Arizona. He had created an organization to stop photo radar and it is this organization that is giving 20,000 of these devices away. What the device does is simply prevent the license plate from being seen at an elevated angle from raised street cameras. These cameras are becoming very widespread and can be found in tunnels, intersections,... anywhere. The loovers allow clear viewing from any police car from behind. More than about a 25+ degree angle or so and the plate is not readable. Simple and effective,... too simple and effective. The law states simply that "the plate must be clearly visible from 100 feet", no problem. Many of us here in Arizona remember Scottsdale police stopping people and removing another device that covered license plates to do the same thing that caused an uproar on talk radio. It was easier to argue that those plastic sheets that thwarted the flash of the cameras did make it difficult for an officer to read the plate from the left or right lanes of traffic. David solved this problem simply by making the loovers in such a way that the plate is invisible to the cameras only. David's problems started when less than a week after he started his TV commercials and sales were really taking off after he had spent $25,000 of the savings of his family (wife and three small children). The Wells Fargo account that he had been using for the deposits of the credit card money for the shipping and handling charges had been frozen with no explanation. Channel 3 was calling saying that they had been tipped off that he was committing a fraud by offering the device for free but charging $14.95 for shipping and handling. David saw that the "video Professor" had been giving away computer learning CD's on TV and charging for only shipping and handling at a certain profit to the handler so he had the idea of offering the device for free and start his own shipping and handling company to process the orders. A good idea as far as I am concerned. He ships the Loovers Federal Express and must pay for the web page and its maintenance and for the phone ordering company at a whopping .85 cents a minute. Add to this the cost of production and the profits just slip away to a very small amount. His only goal was to sustain the effort to distribute as many of these loovers out to the public as possible in his crusade against photo radar. And from this libertarian's perspective, he is entitled to as much money in profit as the free-market will allow. Wells Fargo will not return his phone calls and e-mails and that is what prompted him to seek the advice of the lawyer Marine Marc Victor on Tuesday. ABC's Channel 15 had come to his home last Sunday for an interview and a demonstration of the product and it was the next day that his account was frozen. Channel 3's "3 on your side" was very rude from the beginning and he began to fear that all of the forces of evil were set upon him. He felt that he needed a lawyer that would simply read the law on camera and make it clear that the device was legal. Marc Victor understood that without a citation (government number :) there was little that he could do. He made it clear to David that he needed someone like Ernest Hancock :) David called me very worried and upset. He and his wife were far out of their element and didn't know what or how to handle the situation. They had an enormous investment in a legal product and the forces of evil were aligned in an effort to make an example out of them. I informed David that I would be closing the restaurant that night at 8pm and that he was welcome to come by and tell me everything and I'd see what I could do. Normally when I meet with companies seeking this type of help I make it clear that my time is not free and that the money they were planning on spending on a lawyer is now mine :) Marc made this clear also but this was a regular guy that got caught in something he didn't see coming. If he would do exactly what I said then I could help him with advice and he could do it himself and save a few thousand and take advantage of the free media by turning it back on them. That evening happened to also be the Western Libertarian Alliance's monthly meeting that was held a couple of miles away that I couldn't make. I asked them to come by my restaurant after their meeting to help me with this man's problem. So 8-10 of the best activist with many various talents just happen to be there for him that Tuesday night. It soon became clear what he had stumbled into and the only way that we could help him (this is where experience helps a great deal). David had created a device that was going to cost gazillions to the new industry of traffic camera revenue enhancement for cities. David had many documents that showed us that he was in for a fight. Lockheed Martin built and installed these cameras for the cities and would enter into a contract that would have several interesting aspects to them. There were quotas set for an intersection. If the quota wasn't met then the city would have to pay the company for the tickets not being collected upon. The cities were also prohibited from changing the yellow light delay times after they were agreed upon. How that worked was like this: The cameras would be installed, a week or two later the yellow light time would be increased a second or two to show that the number of red light being run had gone down. This would show that the devices were having a positive effect. David has copies of letters from Lockheed Martin to the city of Mesa making it clear that Mesa is in violation of the contract by having their yellow light time too long and that their cameras are not producing enough red light tickets for their company to collect on. This whole industry is about making money,... duh,... and safety is just an excuse. This is being played out all over the country and is quickly becoming a gazillion dollar industry that will do whatever it takes to keep revenues up. Add to this the desire of Bush's Homeland Defense Department to track everyone all of the time and you can begin to see the creation of the Goliath that David has to deal with. We did our best to explain all of this to David while expressing our glee at the chance to have some fun so as to not scare him too much. David was smart and had a plate made that he put under the loover on his car that said Loover.com so that when the TV cameras were demonstrating it they would have to show his web page :) Channel 15 didn't like this since they didn't want to seem like they were promoting it. They were out to stop this evil man, as was Channel 3. We explained to David that this was sweeps week and that the ratings of the TV news was all that mattered to them and that when they can be seen by the evil powers at the top as having stopped a resister to the authority of the state then they get special awards and such to brag about. It was Tuesday and Saturday was the end of sweeps week as far as I knew so we had to have a plan for the next 4 days that would get him a much press as possible while keeping the press from making stuff up as they often do. Channel 15 had gotten the Radar Enforcement Department of the City of Mesa's Police Department to agree to examine the device on David's car. What they really wanted was one of the devices themselves but David didn't trust them and delayed shipping any devices for 3 days (and still get them to the people that ordered within the promised time) so that TV 15 would not be able to get one and install it incorrectly and make a claim that it didn't work. I advised that I would take the device to the police department on my auto and seek a ticket and or arrest and that we'd get this decided in court right now and get lots of fun press in the process, but that my "arrest rate" was not free :) David decided that he would do what I instructed for himself and this is what happened: David drove to the police station with the device on his car and his brother brought his own car and a video camera. David had gotten a taped comment from a Mesa police sgt. that same day that he thought the device was fine just for extra giggles. The TV camera was there along with an officer and the City of Mesa attorney. The officer looked at David's car and said that it was fine until he got about 5 feet away from the car and couldn't see the plate. The law states "Clear at a hundred feet" not up to 100 feet or 0 to 100 feet etc. The officer said that he would give him a ticket if he was behind him in his squad car. I prepared David for this. David asked if a truck had its tailgate down then it would be in violation according to the officer. The officer said yes. Many new trucks are advertised as having their tailgates down to allow for more storage and have a fold down cage for this. David looked across the police parking see in plain view a truck with its tailgate down and instructed the officer to make sure that they get a ticket. The cameras swung around to video the truck and the police knew that they were in trouble. David was instructed to never allow the TV camera to see him taking the device off of his car since that is exactly what they were hoping to show and claim a victory. David might as well had closed shop if he did that. But getting a ticket was the only way that we were going to get a ruling and have some fun and we were certain to keep this issue in the courts for at least a year to two while the government paid for the time. But we needed the citation to have all of this fun. David told the officer and the Mesa city attorney that he was going to now drive out onto the public street and back so that he could get his ticket. Meanwhile his brother was taping the whole thing :) David drove out on the street and back and asked for his ticket. The officer started to write it but was interrupted by the city attorney. After a private conversation with the attorney the officer explained that he wasn't going to write the ticket after all. David thanked them and left while his brother and the TV crew filmed him driving away from the police station with his loover on the plate :) Had he gotten the ticket and the officer insisted that he then take the device off of the car before going on the public roads, David was instructed to just park the car and drive off with his brother and come back for the car after the TV crew had left and we'd have our fun with the ticket. The Channel 15 TV reporter would later call David and complain that they didn't expect him to want the ticket and thought that they would get him taking it off of his car. Since it turned out the way it did the Mesa Police and the City Council were mad at Channel 15 for "ambushing" them. Channel 15 asked if they could please get one of the loovers for more shots. David told them no and that they got all that they needed when they took video of his car several times with the device installed properly. Channel 15 had already been promoting the snot out of the story during every news promotion break and on the radio and had to run the story but there was no way now that they could get away with doing what they had originally planned. Ironically, The day before the taping at the Mesa police station I had called a friend of mine that I know from church that is a producer at Channel 15. I told him that I wanted to get arrested or at least a ticket with the device and that I may be the one at the Mesa Police station. He said that he would pitch the idea the next morning at a meeting of the producers. It was after this meeting and before David's trip to the Mesa Police that the reporter called me. All she wanted was one of the devices. It was clear to me that we were dealing with a situation that David feared. Just like ABC news had rigged pick-up gas tanks to explode to make a point over a decade ago that many of us remember, I feared that they wanted to show the device not working by installing the device not horizontal as the instructions require. Friday they aired the 3+ minute spot and took some liberties but in the end it was a great spot that showed it working perfectly and they even had the web page on the plate and gave the phone number at the end. Over the next 12 hours he got over 6000 hits on his web page. Tomorrow at 6:05am I got him on Jim Sharpe's #1 rated morning show where the focus will undoubtedly be on the actions of Wells Fargo :) I also took the time last night at a benefit for Arizona School Choice Trust to make Charles Goyette of KFYI aware of the story and will seek to get David on that show also. The Channel 3 reporter (Brooks) has been nothing but rude and offensive in his dealings with David and my advice is to let him rot. Channel 3 can do whatever story they want without our cooperation after all of the unprofessional things that have been said to David. The arrogance of these people is amazing. David's willingness to drive up to the police department and ask that he be cited and then not be cited, then have that part cut from the story should be about as much cooperation as any TV station can expect,... and then they still bitch. TV 3's angle is already set with the idea that he might be making money at the venture (heaven forbid :) So now you know the rest of the story. But this isn't over yet. I have no doubt that the photo radar companies are already hard at work in having the law rewritten to make loovers illegal and will have the support of Homeland Security at the federal level.

"You only get noticed standing up for something you believe in because everyone else is on their knees" --- Ernest Hancock