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Well, believe it or not, I just got a call from the officer who sent me the email to talk to me and reassure me the legitimacy of his correspondence.
His name was Tristan Weston and his number is 03 9536 2666.
He said that I could put his contact details here and if anyone had any queries or concerns that they could contact him. They actually found ice in space, I hadn't mentioned it, and he even read this thread... So before you start calling blue murder and big brother, he was actually a very reasonable guy. He explained that he is a member of the Victorian police working in a joint AFP task force out of Melbourne Airport and he explained that there is a very legitimate reason for their operation. HE explained he specifically didn't use a bureaucratic tone in his email to me because he was trying to avoid sounding too persecuting. He realises we have no intention for using the laser in a criminal way but he explained that the majority of these hand held lasers are not used for any legitimate purpose and in the wrong hands can be very dangerous. He said he has spoken to the Chinese seller who sold me my laser pointer, and that he will be calling Bintel and others...
The most interesting part tho is he explained that after gathering an understanding of the purpose we use the laser pointer for, he was willing to contact the appropriate government authorities and attempt to have the act amended to specifically exclude lasers which have been permanently mounted to a telescope! Which would be great.. So I'll post again if the situation develops.
I'm really not interested in continuing an argument here about whether this is right or fair, so if you are just going to argue, please don't bother.
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