Soon after, Palacios received phone calls from Customs and Border Protection officials and the Texas Rangers.
Palacios, who had run-ins with local CBP agents going back several years, took the camera as the last straw.
He was tired of agents routinely trespassing on his land, and, even after complaining several times, he was frustrated that his grievances were not being heard.
As a possible way to ward off the threat of arrest, he sued the two agencies, along with a named CPB agent, Mario Martinez.
"To have put him in jail would have been—forget the indecency of it—what a way to end a career.".
"As a matter of policy, CBP does not comment on pending litigation," Jennifer Gabris, a CBP spokeswoman, emailed Ars.
"And if you all are going to keep doing that, you're going to have to pay for it. »