False Spotter Network Reports - May 26, 2009

[Derek Weston]

Glad to hear he was caught. Guys like this need to be locked up and kept away from any public matters. 5-10 in a stern Texas correctional facility will do'em good.

 

[Will Wilkens]

It's got to be Alberto.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Glad to hear he was caught. Guys like this need to be locked up and kept away from any public matters. 5-10 in a stern Texas correctional facility will do'em good.

I think it is bad to abuse Spotter Network and anyone who does should and needs to be banned from using it, but I don't think I would go as far as saying he needs to be locked up in prison for it. That's a bit extreme. I can see it now...

Bubba: I sliced a man's neck open and watched him choke on his own blood and die. What are you in for?

Joe: I made some false reports on Spotter Network

 

[Tyler Allison]

It's not Alberto, this guy was in Midland, TX the entire time. It would take a bit of leg work, but any reputable law enforcement agency could find the person and arrest him/her if they wanted to. People think the Internet is anonymous...it isn't.

Sending in false reports to the NWS is like calling 911 and saying a bank is being robbed when it really isn't. You can argue about how bad that crime really is, but it's still a crime. (or so I'm told)

 

[Tyler Allison]

do these reports also end up on the spc site? i hate stupid people

If the NWS office turns one of them into an LSR, yes. But not automatically. No reports to the NWS are automatically made an LSR be it from the phone, email or the SN.

 

[Marcus Hicks]

I just don't get why people do stuff like this. Glad you got him banned Tyler

 

[Kevin Cramer]

Just a thought on how it might be possible to stop this kind of stuff before it happens, and I don't know if it would be possible with your backend or not, but you could make an algorithm that figures out the distance between two reports, and the time between two reports, and if it is over some determined value, throw the report out as it would be impossible to have made the trip in that time. All it would be is an extra PHP/Perl/Whatever-you-are-using call and it would be able to stop these kind of reports early on. I don't know if you have already talked about doing something like that, but it might be worth it.

 

[Steve Miller]

I'll be happy for when you have to have the SN test passed to make reports. All reports should be reasonable good at that point.
Tyler: Fine job with nabbing this persons info. You should release the IP to ST and let the hounds loose. I'm not sure I have ever seen a better sleuthing group than those on this forum...

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Steve -- releasing an IP to a forum to "let the hounds loose" is a good way to get Tyler and Tim Vasquez sued.

I think last time SN had a joker filing lots of false reports the FBI got involved. They're pretty good at finding people.

 

[Darren Addy]

Before a lynch mob forms, there is a degree of uncertainty whether the person at the keyboard was actually the guy behind the username (Kyle Guthrie). For example, he could have left his computer without logging out of the spotternetwork and somebody else sat down at the computer and started to have fun posting as that user. (Chances are that would be a friend or acquaintance, given the time of day, so he should still be questioned, IMHO).

Does the spotternetwork.org site have a cookie that is placed upon log-in? If so, you might consider giving it a shorter expiration time so that this becomes less likely. I think most people would not mind being required to log-in again more often, if it helped prevent this sort of oversight (if that is what it was). It seems unlikely to me that someone with his experience would do this, particularly under his own username. I think there is plenty of reason to consider him innocent until proven guilty (besides that being the way our justice system should work).

However, there is quite a bit of publicly available information on Kyle Guthrie, stormchaser starting with:
http://www.flickr.com/people/kyleguthriestormchaser/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleguthriestormchaser/

The email address at the bottom of the contact page matches the username of these posts:
http://community.myfoxwausau.com/blogs/kgut973/2007/06/20/Storm_Chasing_In_North_Texas
which associate him with a "Tarrant County Storm Chase Interceptor Team".
http://community.myfoxspringfield.com/photos/default.aspx?un=kgut973

Also, this page associates his chasing with another name (bottom of page).
http://www.livestream.com/stormchasing
as does this YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s7Xng8HXyI
His YouTube profile page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/stormchaser21
This video associates him with a third name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRyBwnR0hOs
I guess I find it interesting (under the circumstances) that the username picture seems to be of Kyle Guthrie (based upon Flickr profile info) but the YouTube video is TAGS are Michaela Vallejo


He gives his home town as "Dallas/Ft. Worth", "Bedford", or Burkburnett, or "Wichita Falls area". Since these cover different dates, moving around is indicated.

Also: http://www.weathermatrix.net/members/public.php3?f=Kyle&l=Guthrie

 

[Joey Ketcham]

What Darren said.

Looking at his pictures and videos he seems to be a legit storm chaser, I agree in that we shouldn't be so quick to assume. There could be any number of reasons for why there were so many reports from him.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

What Darren said.

Looking at his pictures and videos he seems to be a legit storm chaser, I agree in that we shouldn't be so quick to assume. There could be any number of reasons for why there were so many reports from him.

He could always blame it on his kid. That excuse works.

 

[Steve Miller]

Steve -- releasing an IP to a forum to "let the hounds loose" is a good way to get Tyler and Tim Vasquez sued.

Tongue-in-cheek humor just does not work in StormTrack anymore. Alas, Darren proves that no IP is needed to hang someone in this community.

Dennis: I'll second that.

 

[Melissa Jablonski]

" Warp Speed Scotty." Time travel rocks. Wouldn't want anyone sued over this. Maybe his names been hijacked .
Melissa

 

[Darren Addy]

Alas, Darren proves that no IP is needed to hang someone in this community.

Not at all. The evidence is there, but it takes some deduction and reasoning to come up with a reasonable explanation. After looking at his chase vehicle, I think the most obvious explanations is that he was posting reports to Spotter Network that he heard over his ham radio from a wide area. While I think this clearly goes against the spirit of Spotter Network, I'm not sure if it is articulated fully as being against the rules. (Have to check). If it isn't then it probably should be (better articulated).

If my conclusion is accurate, then he may not exactly be exonerated, but he isn't exactly lynched either.