18-year-old ‘radio fetishist’ lands in jail, disgraces hobbyists nationwide

An 18-year-old radio enthusiast, Steven Riddle W3MOT, has been busted for stealing various radios — some actually from emergency vehicles such as ambulances and even a fire chief’s vehicle. He is suspected of some of the 28 various radio thefts occurring in the Long Island region of New York. The New York Post reports:

The former Explorer cadet with the Bohemia volunteer fire department is known for constantly fiddling with radio settings, firehouse sirens and anything else he could get his hands on, sources said.

…

He’s charged with stealing two radios from a Sayville Community ambulance on Dec. 27, two portable radios from a West Sayville fire chief’s vehicle between Dec. 24 and 26, and two portable radios from an East Moriches fire vehicle on New Year’s Day.

Steven Riddle W3MOT, radio thief, stands next to a Suffolk County Police Department car (from hamsexy)

A forum thread over at RadioReference is also revealing details of several transactions that members have had with Riddle, involving mostly professional-grade Motorola radios, raising concerns that members unknowingly were purchasing stolen equipment. Fittingly, Riddle’s member icon on RadioReference was a fox in a bandit mask and black gloves. He was already once banned from RadioReference, posting under the “SCPDfan” username.

One of his posts that really struck a chord with me was in a thread about a MotoTRBO taxi radio system:

WTF is a taxi company doing with digital radios?? They don’t need those!!! Meet me over there with your crowbar and duffel bag!

Another post he authored on RadioReference was to sell an AED he had supposedly purchased seven months prior. Though, he may not have sold this item, as there weren’t any more posts by prospective buyers or to announce that the item has been sold.

More details are coming out on the wash in the RadioReference thread, while I can’t confirm these statements are true. People who live in the New York/Long Island region and familiar with Riddle’s doings report that he was “posing as a fire officer on the air, stating that houses were on fire that were not, and houses that were not on fire, that were.” Another user from Riddle’s area reported “pagers set off, sirens and traffic lights were activated, and overhead apparatus room doors were opened at all hours of the night [by Riddle]!”

W3MOT's hacked entry (click to enlarge)

I am confident that the hacked QRZ entry echoes the sentiments of radio hobbyists nationwide. Riddle falls into one of the many categories of people that radio enthusiasts are ashamed of.

I’ll say all of this this in bold-faced font because I think it’s incredibly important to mention: His thievery and misuse of his knowledge threatened the safety and integrity of police officers, firefighters, EMT’s, and other first responders. It is people like him that force public safety officials (and the general public) to turn up their noses at radio enthusiasts, and cause more than passing suspicion upon those carrying a police scanner or anyone that has more than one antenna on their vehicle. You can thank people like Riddle for giving agencies a reason to go digital and/or use full-time encryption. You can thank people like Riddle for states passing anti-scanner laws.

It’s likely that Riddle will get away with only a slap on the hands, with a few years of jail time and a revocation of his license. Will he be able to re-apply for a license? I don’t know. But as long as he has access to radios, it’s also likely that he’ll continue to abuse his knowledge of radio systems.