Quadro Tracker
The Quadro Tracker, also known as the Positive Molecular Locator, was a fake "detection device" sold by Quadro Corp. of
Description and claims
The Quadro Tracker was invented by Wade L. Quattlebaum, a former used car salesman from Harleyville, South Carolina. He was said to have devised the Quadro Tracker after he was trying to invent something to find lost golf balls.[2] It was sold through his company, the Quadro Corporation, between 1993 and 1996. Around 1,000 Quadro Trackers were sold at prices of between $400 and $8,000 per unit.[3]
The device consisted of three principal components. A "locator card" purportedly containing a "signature" of the object to be detected was inserted into a plastic "card reader" about the size of a tape cassette that could be attached to the user's belt. This was connected to a hand-held unit about 4 inches (10 cm) long to which a horizontally swivelling metal antenna was attached.[4] The antenna would purportedly point to the item being sought when a suitable locator card was inserted into the "card reader".[5]
According to the manufacturers, the Quadro Tracker could be used to detect items as varied as drugs, weapons, explosives, specific people, golf balls, alcohol, precious metal, dead pets or wild game animals. In the most expensive version of the device, costing $8,000, the user could insert Polaroid photographs of the item or person to be detected.[6] According to Quadro Corp., "Quadro units have been designed to locate people from a photograph, as well as from a fingerprint. Thus missing prisoners, or escaped prisoners can be located with ease. The machine will identify an individual, no matter what disguise or surgery is undertaken. It has been tested over a distance of 500 miles, and will track, we believe, at any distance."[3]
The device could supposedly even detect drugs after they had been ingested by a person. A marketing brochure stated: "The tracker will also locate specific drugs in solution. This means that even a person who had been using drugs will have traces in their bodily fluids, blood, etc. Thus the Tracker will indicate people who are using drugs, as well as those who are merely carrying it. Therefore extreme caution should be taken if searching a person, or making accusations, as they may, indeed, not be carrying drugs on them!"[3]
Quadro Corp. claimed the device worked by oscillating "static electricity produced by the body inhaling and exhaling gases into and out of the lung cavity" to "charge the free-floating neutral electrons of the signature card with the major strength of the signal".[3][4] The device's mechanism supposedly contained conductors, inductors and oscillators.[6] It was claimed to be able to detect drugs hidden in air-tight containers, a bomb inside a building from outside or a criminal suspect 15 miles away.[7]
Users
Numerous US school boards, airports and police departments purchased the Quadro Tracker before it was banned. The
The Texas
Exposure
The Quadro Tracker enjoyed considerable commercial success before FBI agent Ron Kelly, stationed in Beaumont, Texas, learned about the device from a contact on the Narcotics Task Force of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in 1995. He was suspicious of the claims made for the Quadro Tracker and obtained one of the devices, which he examined using the local courthouse's X-ray machine. It was immediately apparent that the Quadro Tracker was hollow; as Kelly later recalled, "It didn't take a lot of effort on our part to determine it was phony."[3]
The FBI commissioned the FBI Laboratory's technicians and Sandia National Laboratories to examine the device. They found that the Quadro Tracker contained no electronics whatsoever. It was merely an empty plastic box in which the only metal parts were a couple of wires and the antenna, which were not connected to each other. The antenna was merely a transistor radio aerial.[4] Attorneys for Quadro Corp. later contended that the inductors and oscillators supposed to be inside the device "aren't the type usually thought of by electronics experts".[6] The "locator chip" was shown to be equally fake; one example put on display by the FBI contained dead ants that had been frozen and stuck onto paper with epoxy glue.[4]
Kelly's office brought it to the attention of
At the same time, the FBI sent a nationwide alert to law enforcement agencies: "A device marketed to law enforcement agencies nationwide, the Quadro Tracker… is a fraud. All agencies should immediately cease using the device if used as a basis for probable cause."[8]
Bradford stated: "The company's claims about the capabilities and operations of the Quadro Tracker are fraudulent and false. There is no scientific basis whatsoever for the operation of the device." He said that Quadro Corp. had also falsely claimed in its promotional materials that the device had been tested or endorsed by the FBI, the US
Fraud investigation and trial
Following the injunction against Quadro Corp., the FBI pursued a criminal investigation against the company's principals and distributors. Two Houston-based Assistant US Attorneys who had acted as distributors – Guy Womack, who later represented US Army Specialist
On August 22, 1996, a federal grand jury returned indictments on mail fraud charges against Quadro Corp.; Wade L. Quattlebaum, the company's president; Raymond L. Fisk, the vice-president; Malcolm S. Roe, the company secretary; and William J. Long, a distributor. The case came to trial in January 1997. On January 29, 1997 the three men were acquitted of all charges by a federal jury.[1]
Successors
Despite the demise of the Quadro Tracker, a succession of similar devices has appeared in widespread use in a number of countries including
Another British company, ATSC, produced a very similar device called the ADE 651 which was sold to Iraq as a bomb detector. After a series of devastating bomb attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere which killed hundreds of people, its export to Iraq and Afghanistan was banned by the British government in January 2010 and the company director was arrested on suspicion of fraud.[20] On 23 April 2013, the businessman behind the device, James McCormick, was convicted of three counts of fraud at the Old Bailey in London.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Jury acquits 3 in Quadro Tracker case". The Associated Press. 1997-01-30.
- ^ Harrison, Cal (1995-04-27). "Divine device or hoax? Police test invention that may detect drugs, bombs". The Herald Rock Hill.
- ^ a b c d e f Doherty, Brian (1996-11-01). "Box of dreams". Reason. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
- ^ a b c d "Drug Tracking Device Branded Phony". The Associated Press. 1996-01-24.
- ^ Tedford, Deborah (1996-02-09). "Local feds sponsored tracker demonstration". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ a b c Stewart, Richard (1996-02-11). "Injunction granted to halt marketing of search device". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Eberting, Cindy (1996-01-21). "Drug, gun detector a 'fraud,' FBI says Device schools bought apparently little more than paper, plastic". Kansas City Star.
- ^ a b Eberting, Cindy (1996-01-26). "Drug detector a fraud, FBI says". Kansas City Star.
- ^ Foushee, Beth (1996-01-23). "Schools study alert about detection device". Tampa Tribune.
- ^ a b c Tomaso, Bruce (1996-01-25). "Firm accused of fraud drug, weapons detecting devices". The Dallas Morning News.
- ^ Simoneux, Angela (1996-01-27). "FBI says drug "detecting" device has found only suckers". Saturday State Times/Morning Advocate.
- ^ Foushee, Beth (1996-01-26). "Tracker sales halted". Tampa Tribune.
- ^ Staff (1996-02-04). "Tracking device sold to police is phony". The Providence Journal.
- ^ a b Staff (2005-01-12). "Stretching the defense / Lawyer's defense for soldier accused of Abu Ghraib torture proves as colorful as the attorney's past". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Tedford, Deborah (1996-02-06). "Prosecutors linked to sales scheme". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Stewart, Richard (1996-04-05). "Prosecutor may be focus of fraud probe". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Frazier, Kendrick (2003-01-01). "Sandia tests MOLE detector, finds only chance performance". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 27, no. 1.
- ^ Staff (2010-02-17). "Bt800-million embarrassment". The Nation. Archived from the original on 2010-02-18. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
- ^ Laohong, King-oua; Piragsa, Surichai (2010-02-17). "ONCB gives go ahead for Alpha 6 test". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
- ^ Sengupta, Kim (2010-01-22). "Head of bomb detector company arrested in fraud investigation". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
External links
- Caroline Hawley and Meirion Jones (22 January 2010), "Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'", BBC Newsnight. A similar device.