Maritime Vigilantes

South Florida citizens take homeland defense into their own hands with Operation On Guard

A A A Comments By Rebecca Wakefield Thursday, May 8 2003

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Of course eternal vigilance has its drawbacks. One is the potential for overzealous citizens to make mistakes -- or opportunists to seek revenge on their enemies. One example happened recently in Key Biscayne. A personal watercraft concessionaire called the On Guard hotline to report four Pakistani customers who he claimed had made worrying statements concerning the Port of Miami. Local antiterrorism task force members scrambled, locating the men a few hours later at their hotel. The four turned out to be legit -- medical students from England who'd argued with the concessionaire about extra charges on one of the watercraft.

In an appropriately karmic twist, when the feds checked the concessionaire, they found out he was a Frenchman who had overstayed his visa. He was deported. "You're going to risk prank calls," Cate allows, adding that the Coast Guard doesn't encourage well-meaning people to go too far in playing private detective: Don't follow people in your car. "People watch TV and think they are Magnum P.I. The key is to get the tag number and let law enforcement follow it up."

Photo by Steve Satterwhite

The boys of volunteer homeland security: Armin, Larry, Marshall, and Tom

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