Brazilian RC helicopter cellphone delivery service busted

What do you do when your cellphone-smuggling carrier pigeons get caught on their way to the big house? Why, you go higher tech, of course. Those texting-crazed Brazlian ultra-max prisoners hatched a new plot to fly a radio controlled helicopter up over the wall of a prison, dropping diaper-swaddled handsets into the awaiting hands of criminal non-masterminds on the inside. Unfortunately for them, police foiled the plan when they pulled over the accomplices on the outside, confiscating the chopper, a suite of phones, and arresting the four who were paid just $5,000 to get the plan airborne. Our suggestion for their next attempt? Jetpacks.

[Photo courtesy of AP]

[reuben @ May 26th 2009 8:28AM]

Do Brazlians come from Brazzer Land?

[James @ May 26th 2009 12:28PM]

Haven't you seen Brazilian women?

where do you think they got the idea for the PrOn site ``Brazzers``

[Pacinpm @ May 26th 2009 8:33AM]

Next time use catapult.

[Quantumphysics @ May 26th 2009 9:23AM]

Not a catapult, use a mortar with hollowed out soccer balls.

[TJ @ May 26th 2009 10:30AM]

Because soccer balls aren't hollow already?

[Wicker24 @ May 26th 2009 2:30PM]

Well Quantumphysics tells us they are not.

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ May 27th 2009 1:13AM]

Won't the soccer balls hit the ground in the prison then bounce back over the fence top and escape?

[Billy Gun @ May 26th 2009 8:32AM]

Wait till It goes RTM!

[karts41 @ May 26th 2009 8:32AM]

Awesome.

[gunner @ May 26th 2009 8:44AM]

Wouldn't they get shot at if they use a jetpack?

[SewerShark @ May 26th 2009 10:21AM]

At least, the guards would have some fun.

[r3loaded @ May 26th 2009 8:46AM]

Haha, that is actually awesome! Though it must be said that this has been done before, in the form of cheeseburgers and David Blaine in a box.

[TRS @ May 26th 2009 10:57AM]

david blaine: "I can haz cheezburger?"

[RickyRik @ May 26th 2009 8:50AM]

next time teleport...

[Jaspa @ May 26th 2009 8:52AM]

jetpack driven mobiles... i want one too!

[TRS @ May 26th 2009 10:59AM]

use a trojan horse next time, obviously
to smuggle in trojans

[TIMMAH! @ May 26th 2009 11:33AM]

T-shirt slingshots anyone?

[NeoJew @ May 26th 2009 11:47AM]

or a T-shirt cannon!

[Jon Doe. @ May 26th 2009 11:47AM]

OK all of a sudden I'm getting an image of a jailbreak attempt with the user of a 100 of these choppers holding up a line with flight of the bumblebees playing in the background.

Not sure how you would manage that. Maybe a + with 25 on each axis\bar and the line draping from the center.

[Jon Doe. @ May 26th 2009 11:51AM]

OK. I'll bite with the next times.

Next time bribe a guard. I mean seriously if you are getting paid 5K a pop drop a $1200 into their lap. However if its found they escaped because you provided them a cell. Yah someone is going to be spending time with bubba in the big house.
Seems to me like there are better, more legal, ways to make money. *shrugs*

[anarchydude @ May 26th 2009 12:04PM]

This plan was definitely a fail from the beginning, but they could have went electric instead of nitro. Would have been a little softer on the noise dept ;-)

[Corey @ May 26th 2009 12:18PM]

Way to crop out AP's logo on the original photo Engadget.

[Rob @ May 26th 2009 12:50PM]

How tall is this wall? Last time I held a cell phone, it seemed like it could be tossed.

[Tomas @ May 26th 2009 1:09PM]

If they had bribed one of the guards with $500 the cell phone would be taken to the prisioner on a silver plate! [I live in Brazil, and know what I'm talking about]

[hawkwood @ May 26th 2009 1:13PM]

DIGGING! An RC tunneling device could dig under the walls of the prison without the chance of being shot down.

Or or ...

Sewage line ala Shawshank Redemption (but in reverse). A mini water (and feces) submersible RC device carries mini mobile phones up through the sewage line and could go right up to a cell's drain (prison cell's have drains, right?)

Or ... you could bribe a guard, like Jon Doe suggested.

[SiXiam @ May 26th 2009 3:51PM]

What they need are preprogrammed rc helicopters, that can fly from a farther distance.
That way you don't get caught, because you are too far away to be spotted and you don't have to hang around to fly them.

[MaxSMoke @ May 26th 2009 4:46PM]

A little catapult, well tuned and weighted, in the back of a truck, would have done the job faster and will less noise. There are also those Tee-Shirt cannons, although I don't know about the accuracy with arced trajectories. It seems like RC choppers would make too much noise, and have far too short of a range. They should have been easy to both see and hear.

[Wwhat @ May 26th 2009 6:38PM]

Was typing the same idea when I saw you already mentioned it, yeah slingshots or catapults, or the old potato cannon even, cheaper than a RC chopper and only makes a sound once after which you can change location.
Mind you some prisons are deliberately way off any public roads so then it becomes harder, you need something that can go quite a distance and be precise enough.
It's a weird battle though, why do they need phones so much? To run some crime empire? And once they get one in prison how do they recharge it? Or are they meant to arrange a bustout and only used once?

[JeffEd @ May 26th 2009 7:04PM]

They should really try a staircar :-)

[Newone @ May 27th 2009 5:05AM]

Balloon and strings. Completely silent and with seethrough balloon hard to detect too.

[Mr. Smiley @ May 27th 2009 9:08AM]

For crying out loud.. haven't wardens ever heard of cell phone jamming equipment?