Opinion ID: 4531433
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Warrant and Search

Text: In April of 2016, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service received information that mail theft was occurring at the Summerlin Post Office located in Las Vegas, Nevada. On April 6, 2016, Postal Inspector Steele obtained video footage from surveillance cameras at the Summerlin Post Office which showed a person engaging in “fishing”—a method of stealing mail from a mailbox in which an individual lowers UNITED STATES V. YANG 7 an object—which usually has adhesive or some grasping mechanism—into the box and then retrieves mail from the box by pulling it out with this object. The surveillance footage showed that on April 5, 2016, at 2:17 AM, a slim Asian or white male with short hair exited a dark colored GMC Yukon (“Yukon”) and placed a fishing device into the collection box. Although the April 5th surveillance footage showed the individual losing his fishing device in the collection box prior to removing mail, surveillance video on April 6, 7 and 8, 2016, showed the same individual exit the Yukon and use a fishing device to remove mail from the collection box. The surveillance video did not capture a discernable license plate for the Yukon on those days. On April 7, 2016, afternoon surveillance video from the Summerlin Post Office revealed another vehicle, a Budget rental truck with Oklahoma license plate 2QD483 (“Budget Truck”), with what appeared to be the same driver as that of the Yukon on the previous days. On this day, the driver again was observed on the video engaging in fishing activity with a collection box. On April 9, 2016, the Yukon was again observed on surveillance video with the same driver engaging in “fishing” activities as seen on the previous days. On this day, the license plate for the Yukon was viewable and was identified as California license plate 7RIV310. On April 11, 2016, Inspector Steele conducted a DMV records check for the Yukon and its license plate number and learned that the vehicle was registered to Prestige Motors, a car rental company located in Las Vegas, Nevada. That same day, Inspector Steele visited Prestige Motors to obtain additional information. There, he learned that the Yukon 8 UNITED STATES V. YANG had been reserved and rented on a third-party website by Jay Yang. The contract rental period began on April 2, 2016, and the vehicle was due back on April 5, 2016, at 10:48 a.m., but had not yet been returned. The credit card used to complete the transaction was subsequently revealed to be stolen. Inspector Steele testified at the suppression hearing that Prestige had attempted to repossess the vehicle by activating its GPS unit and remotely disabling the vehicle. Inspector Steele was also informed that the vehicle was not at the location indicated by the GPS unit and that the GPS unit was no longer functioning, apparently having been disabled by a third party. Although a representative of Prestige Motors stated that Prestige considered the vehicle to be stolen, Prestige had not filed a stolen vehicle report with the police. On April 12, 2016, Inspector Steele contacted Budget Truck Rental (“Budget”) and obtained the rental information for the Budget Truck that had been viewed in the surveillance video on April 7, 2016. Inspector Steele was informed that the Budget Truck had been rented to Jay Yang on March 14, 2016, and had not been returned by the contract due date on March 16, 2016. On April 13, 2016, Inspector Steele requested a vehicle detection report for the Yukon through a license platelocation database called LEARN. The LEARN database was created and is maintained by a private company named Vigilant Solutions. The LEARN database receives license plate images from digital cameras mounted on tow truck, repossession company and law enforcement vehicles. These camera-mounted vehicles photograph at thirty frames per second any license plate they encounter while driving around in the course of business. ALPR technology loaded on a laptop inside the camera-mounted vehicles interprets the UNITED STATES V. YANG 9 alphanumeric characters depicted on the plate into machinereadable text and records the latitude and longitude of a vehicle the moment it photographs a license plate. The software also generates a range of addresses estimated to be associated with these GPS coordinates. This information is uploaded to and stored in the database for years after its collection, and is searchable by law enforcement and government agencies that pay a subscription fee. The LEARN database receives about thirty-five percent of its images from law enforcement vehicle cameras and the remaining sixty-five percent of its images from commercial vehicle cameras. Access to the LEARN database is limited to law enforcement subscribers. The Postal Inspection Service has a user access subscription to the LEARN database, but does not contribute any images to the database. There is a companion database used by commercial clients, but this database only contains information obtained from commercial vehicles, not law enforcement vehicles. All commercial scans and attendant location information are transferred to the LEARN database and law enforcement has access to those commercial scans. At the suppression hearing, Mr. Hodnett, president of the holding company of Vigilant Solutions, testified that there were approximately 5 billion license plates scans and affiliated location data stored in LEARN’s database and that on average, the license plate for any particular vehicle is scanned and uploaded to the database approximately four times per year. Inspector Steele testified that his queries of the LEARN database have sometimes produced one record, sometimes twenty, and sometimes none at all. While there was no evidence in the record that definitively established how long scans and location data are retained in the LEARN database, Inspector Steele testified that vehicle detection 10 UNITED STATES V. YANG reports he has received from the database, have returned records “go[ing] back years.” The LEARN database continues to grow. The amici brief noted that as of March 2019, it was estimated that the company’s commercial database alone had grown to include over 6.5 billion license plate scans. The LEARN database also maintains license plate numbers of vehicles that have been reported stolen and those reported as being associated with a crime. Users can receive real-time alerts when a license plate number has been captured that matches one of those flagged in the database as being associated with a crime. In addition, the database permits subscribers to search for license plate numbers captured within a certain time period and radius of where a crime occurred. The vehicle detection report 1 that Inspector Steele obtained on April 13, 2016, for the license plate associated with the Yukon showed the images of the license plate that had been captured and the software’s first and second best interpretations of the alphanumeric characters on the license plate, 7RIV310, RIV310. The vehicle detection report showed that the images were captured on April 5, 2016, around 11:24 p.m. and identified the latitude and longitude of the camera-mounted vehicle 2 at the time it took the photographs. The database generated a range of addresses, 7810–7898 Tenshaw Ave., that were estimated to be 1 As the district court had noted, there are actually two detection reports based on two images that had been captured of the license plate approximately a second apart. 2 The images of the Yukon in the vehicle detection report had been taken by a commercial repossession vehicle. UNITED STATES V. YANG 11 associated with the GPS coordinates in the report and identified the nearest intersection as being Tenshaw Avenue and Devonhall Street. On April 13, 2006, the same day that Inspector Steele obtained the vehicle detection report, he went to the area of Tenshaw Avenue where the repossession company captured images of the Yukon’s license plate on April 5, 2006. Tenshaw Avenue is located within a large, gated condominium complex. To get to Tenshaw Avenue, Inspector Steele testified at the suppression hearing that he had to enter through the condominium complex’s security gate using his law enforcement-issued transponder to open the gate. Once he passed beyond the gate, he had to make a left turn at the beginning of the complex, another right turn, and then a little left turn to arrive at Tenshaw Avenue. Once on Tenshaw Avenue, Inspector Steele observed the Yukon parked in a general community parking lot within the gated condominium complex. Inspector Steele testified that he would not have been able to see the Yukon from the entrance of the complex. During Inspector Steele’s first visit to the condominium complex, he spoke with a Postal Service letter carrier for the complex and learned that an Authorization to Hold Mail was in place as of April 5, 2016, with no listed end date, for Jay Yang at 7821 Tenshaw Ave. Unit #103, Las Vegas, Nevada 89145. As Inspector Steele left the area of 7821 Tenshaw Avenue on April 13, 2016, he observed the Budget Truck used for fishing mail on April 7, 2016, parked just outside of the area and across the street. Inspector Steele was able to observe, in plain view on the dashboard of the Budget Truck, fishing devices consistent with what he observed were used on the surveillance video. 12 UNITED STATES V. YANG Inspector Steele also obtained subscriber information from the local utility, NV Energy, for 7821 Tenshaw Ave. Unit #103. The subscriber information indicated that the power was turned on by “Jay Yang.” On April 19, 2006, Inspector Steele observed that Budget had taken repossession of the Budget Truck. The repossession company allowed Inspector Steele to look into the cab of the Budget Truck from the sidewalk with the doors open and he was able to observe fishing devices in the vehicle. On April 25, 2016, Inspector Steele and Postal Inspector Hudson (“Inspector Hudson”) engaged in a ruse by attempting to deliver a package to a fictitious person at 7821 Tenshaw Ave. Unit #103. Inspector Hudson knocked on the door and it was answered by a male who identified himself as “Jay Yang.” On May 6, 2016, a search warrant was served on the residence of 7821 Tenshaw Ave. Unit #103. Yang, along with three other individuals, were present at the residence when the search warrant was executed. Therein, law enforcement found fishing devices, numerous pieces of stolen mail, and a Phoenix Arms model HP22 pistol. Yang waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to law enforcement. During his conversation with law enforcement, Yang admitted to fishing from collection boxes in the area, including the collection boxes at the Summerlin Post Office, and stated that he used devices like those found at his residence to steal mail. Yang also admitted to owning the firearm that was recovered from his bedroom. On May 6, 2016, Inspector Steel contacted Prestige Motors to notify them about the location of the Yukon. Representatives of Prestige came to 7821 Tenshaw to UNITED STATES V. YANG 13 repossess the vehicle. Prestige opened the doors of the vehicle and allowed contractors for the Postal Inspection Service to take pictures of the interior and Prestige Motors cleared the vehicle of its contents.