{"id":848975,"date":"2026-09-15T20:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848975\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:32:12","slug":"charges-against-man-who-destroyed-3d-printed-decoy-flock-camera-drastically-reduced-after-state-admits-it-was-not-very-valuable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848975\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges Against Man Who Destroyed 3D-Printed \u2018Decoy\u2019 Flock Camera Drastically Reduced After State Admits It Was Not Very Valuable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a move that should surprise zero people but is worth noting nonetheless, three felony charges against a man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/man-charged-with-3-felonies-for-breaking-3d-printed-decoy-flock-camera\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who destroyed a police officer\u2019s<\/a> \u201cdecoy\u201d 3D-printed Flock camera have been reduced to misdemeanors after the police admitted the fake camera was not worth more than a thousand dollars.<\/p>\n<p>In August, we wrote about the Oviedo, Florida Police Department\u2019s strategy to catch would-be Flock vandals by 3D-printing shells of Flock cameras, attaching them to poles around the city, and then having human cops monitor the poles for multiple nights. The police eventually caught a man named Evan Meyer, who allegedly knocked one of these decoy cameras off a pole and destroyed it with garden shears. Police arrested him and charged him with three felonies, including destruction of \u201ccomputer equipment supplies,\u201d criminal mischief for property damage of something worth more than $1,000, and grand theft of property valued between $750 and $5,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CleanShot-2026-09-15-at-8.41.59-AM@2x.png\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1632\" height=\"1230\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>All three of these charges were felonies, and the police department and 404 Media have shared a lengthy email exchange in which the department refuses to release any records about how the camera was made because of an ongoing criminal investigation associated with the destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This week, however, Meyer\u2019s charges were drastically reduced in a filing by an assistant state attorney. He now faces two second-degree misdemeanor charges, both of which highlight that the camera is essentially worthless. The filing document now states that Meyer \u201cdid unlawfully, willfully, and maliciously injure or damage a [\u2026] decoy pole camera [\u2026] such damage being $200 or less,\u201d and has additionally been charged with petty theft in the amount of less than $750.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>About the author<\/p>\n<p>Jason is a cofounder of 404 Media. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Motherboard. He loves the Freedom of Information Act and surfing.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/404-jason-01-copy.jpeg\" alt=\"Jason Koebler\"\/>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a move that should surprise zero people but is worth noting nonetheless, three felony charges against a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-848975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}