AOL Digs Up Yard for Spam Gold 230
Registered Coward v2 writes "AOL is planning to dig in a MA couple's yard looking for buried gold and platinum owned by a spammer they successfully sued for spamming AOL. AOL said Tuesday it intends to search for gold and platinum bars the company suspects are hidden near the home of Davis Wolfgang Hawke's parents on two acres in Medfield, Massachusetts. The family said it will fight in court to oppose AOL's plans."
Why not just use shovels? (Score:2, Insightful)
I think it's a little bit of an overkill. If the article is true, the man just used shovels to hide the gold. Sounds like the ol' Gold Rush to me.
"AOL said it will try to accommodate Hawke's parents by not being too obtrusive."
lol
X marks the spot (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nothing to hide? (Score:5, Insightful)
And using heavy machinery does seem a bit like overkill. If the guy did bury his ill-gotten gains there, then he did it with a spade. Surely an old fashioned metal detector would do the trick, and failing that one of those clever underground scanners the archeologists use.
Re:Nothing to hide? (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you ever tried to "fix" a tree with a bulldozer?
KFG
Unless TV Has Lied to Me ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I would assume that a non-intrusive "search" of the property would at least be a middle ground between the two sides.
Re:Nothing to hide? (Score:1, Insightful)
In that case, you'd need a much more stringet set of requirements for the burden of proof lest you end up with a society of one handed, one footed, one eyed people, many of whom were falsely accused and convicted.
If you want to spur more violence and civil unrest all you need to do is overreact in an excessively violent manner. A perfect example of this is Israel and Lebanon. Understandably Israel was angered by the murder of their (three?) soldiers, but bombing Lebanon back to the stone age in retaliation was a bit on the "way overboard" side in terms of justice. And because of it did Lebanon and Hezbollah stop doing what they were doing? Of course not - it just escalated.
I'm not saying violence is never justified, but excessive violence is never justified. Would you lop off appendages for jaywalking, or just for murder? What about white-collar crimes like Ken Lay and Enron?
Re:Wait... (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone didn't read the article. His income was from spamming and the only siezable possessions are a used cop car (whereabouts unknown) and . . .
. .
He now either has the choice of living in povery. .
He has already made that choice. For some reason he just likes the idea of living in poverty with gold and platinum buried somewhere. Makes him feel comfy or something just knowing it's there while he's eating cold Kraft macaroni and cheese in the back seat of his used cop car, down by the Connecticut River.
KFG
Re:Wait... (Score:4, Insightful)
As much as I hate the spammer, I have to credit him that he was bright enough to know how to commit a lucrative crime. People who work average pay jobs but start profiting from fraud or theft, often expose themselves as they start turning up to work in Ferraris and buying big new houses, they just shout to the world "I am making too much money somehow". Patiently buying gold is a smart way to work, you just have to know when to quit so you can spend your cash, away from the scene of the crime. I guess DWH has done just this.
Personally, I can see the logic in hunting in the parents garden, as it seems he was living there when he was aquiring the gold. But isn't it more likely he has just taken them wherever he has gone?
He doesn't have any money (Score:5, Insightful)
People are creatures of habit and familiarity, he's probably hidden it somewhere he's familiar with and is fairly sure it's unlikely to be disturbed. Places he's visited regularly, holidayed, relatives etc. The more often he's been there the greater the familiarity and the greater the chance he's hidden it there. AOL are going after the logical first target.
Re:Sounds liek the RIAA again (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe, maybe not, but then they aren't punishing the guilty. They're punishing the guilty's parents without any real probable cause for believing the bars are actually on the property.
The parents claim that they're buried in the White Mountains somewhere not only sounds reasonable, but probable.
Oh, hey! I've got relatives in North Conway I can stay with. Hands off Washington, Jefferson and Monroe people. I claim them. They're mine! Mine! All mine! I'm a greedy little miser.
KFG
Re:Nothing to hide? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sounds liek the RIAA again (Score:3, Insightful)
Now that the parents of the culprit should have to suffer, is a different matter. They might be entirely innocent and really have no connection to the money. Then again AOL may be right with their suspicions. I hope the judge will come to a fair decision.
Ah, it's ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
AOL used to spam too... (Score:2, Insightful)
Damage could be desirable (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say that the best way to do it would be to go in there with heavy equipment, and just run all the dirt on the property down to a depth of about six feet or so through a sifter. It's probably reasonably cheap from AOL's perspective (all you need is a backhoe and a separator/sifter -- that's probably not the right term for it, but you've probably seen the machines that do this), and it creates a nice TV image if what you want to show is a spammer/family-of-spammer getting their lives trashed.
A whole lot of people out there really hate spammers; it's one of those things that pretty much everybody hates and has to deal with, and the idea that people who profited (potentially) from spam are getting their lives turned upside down isn't necessarily a bad PR move. Of course, it could easily backfire if the people in question can portray themselves as the victims, but if they're sufficiently uncharismatic, don't think for a moment that the American public won't be beside themselves with glee seeing their lawn get trashed. Public opinion in this country has a bit of a vengeful streak -- there's nothing we like better than seeing karma come around and bite someone in the ass.
All depends on who can make themselves look like the good guy.
Victims?? Wtf?? (Score:1, Insightful)
If there's any question about where that $12m should go, how about all of us who're not simple enough to buy junk from spam and actually were victims to Wolfe's unsolicited emailing???
Re:Damage could be desirable (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the spammer's parents' house. If you read the article, you would know that the spammer drove an old beater car and never owned property. He was a millionaire on paper, not by lifestyle. Punishing his parents for his crime is wrong and illegal.
Re:AOL used to spam too... (Score:3, Insightful)
But those AOL CDs do cost money to throw away, even if you live in a city with free trash pickup, or you take these CDs to someone else's trashbin, or you donate them to goodwill. It's petty to think about, your end expence to toss them is rather small, but think about how many of those suckers are in the landfill and how much space they occcupy, and how long they take to decompose.
It wasn't so bad when they offered their software in the DVD long box, but the current pack is practicaly unuseable in any practical way.
Re:He doesn't have any money (Score:1, Insightful)
Creative ways to battle spam (Score:2, Insightful)