Here's the story:
>> The 2 that were on
>> Ebay were stolen and I bet there are 2 people out some big money
Two charged after Army radios end up on eBay
By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, July 3, 2003
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea ? Two South Korean
men are in custody and a third may be charged
after Army radios stolen from a Pusan recycling
depot turned up on an online auction site, a
Pusan police official said Friday.
The eight radios and accessories ? valued at
$67,000 total ? were recovered by Korean
National Police, said Maj. David Oten, 8th Army
deputy public affairs officer.
The radios are RT1439 single channel ground
airborne radio systems, known as SINCGARS, the
Army's standard ground and vehicle radio used by
infantry troops, Oten said.
A man named Hong who worked for the Defense
Reutilization and Management Office a few miles
from Camp Hialeah allegedly kept eight Army
radios in April 2001, said Lt. Son Kyu-hwa of
the Pusan police agency of foreign affairs
division. A base employee whom Oten could not
identify allegedly falsified paperwork saying
the radios had been properly decommissioned,
Oten said.
The military uses DRMO to recycle or dispose of
equipment, Oten said. If the cost of repairing
an item is more than the item's value, the Army
may choose to dispose of it, he said.
Some equipment may be sold, but materials having
proprietary military technology are
"demilitarized," Oten said.
The radios, which each cost $7,000 new, were
scheduled for demilitarization, Oten said.
But Hong sold them for about $83 each to a man
named Chae who collects surplus Army equipment,
Pusan police's Son said. Chae resold the radios
to a man named Kim, an amateur radio technician,
for about $266 each, Son said.
Only the last names of the three men were
available, Son said.
On May 15, Kim posted two of the radios for
about $1,200 each on eBay, Son said. A CIA agent
noticed the radios and contacted Camp Hialeah,
Son said.
While illegal, the sale of the radios didn't a
pose a great security risk, Oten said.
The radios are common and didn't have advanced
cryptographic equipment, Oten said.
"It was not a secure communications issue," he
said.
The incident remains under investigation by Army
Criminal Investigation Division agents, Oten
said.
? Choe Song-won contributed to this report.