The Fugitive Game: Online With Kevin Mitnick (52 page)

Markoff gets everyone's ear when he mentions Mitnick inspired
the hit movie
WarGames.
"Markoff was filling us in on Mitnick's
typical behavior, the different people Mitnick had run-ins with,"
recalls Murphy. "A guy in England, a guy in Princeton, one at Digital." Then, Markoff runs through some of Mitnick's aliases. One of
the phony names rings a bell with Murphy. After dinner, the whole
crew heads back to the switch, and just as Murphy suspected, he
finds a memo describing a recent attempt by someone using the alias
to social engineer a new bunch of MINs.

Meanwhile, the FBI is bumping up against a technical problem. The
agents had planned to install the FBI's own bulky scanning equipment
in a rental van, but they can't find one. Murphy suggests using his co-
worker Fred's minivan. Burns gives the idea the green light, and Orsak
helps the agents set up and calibrate their equipment in Fred's van.

Around midnight, Fred chauffeurs the two agents to circle the cell
site to calibrate their scanning equipment. Fred and the FBI agents
get to talking.

"He [Fred] let the cat out of the bag," confides Murphy. "We
didn't tell him not to say anything. We weren't trying to hide it, but
we were also not trying to convey it. He told them Markoff wrote a
book on this guy."

The boys from Quantico aren't happy.

"They freaked," recalls Murphy. "They thought Markoff would
tip the guy [Mitnick] so he could write another book."

One of the Quantico agents phones the Sprint switch to confirm
Markoff's identity. "Me, Markoff, Tsutomu, and Julia were at the
switch," remembers Murphy. "One of the Quantico guys was on the
phone. He wanted to talk to Tsutomu."

Murphy passes the phone to Shimomura.

"He [Shimomura] wasn't about to lie," says Murphy of the tense
moment. "He [Shimomura] was trying to evade a little bit. He said
that Kent Walker knew about Markoff being there, which of course
Walker did."

Murphy, Markoff, and Menapace listen to Shimomura.

"Kent knows about it," insists Shimomura to the agent from
Quantico. "He's cleared through Kent."

But Kent Walker later denied ever giving Shimomura such ap-
proval or knowing John Markoff was in Raleigh. Shimomura later
disputed Murphy's account and said he "never told anyone from law
enforcement that anyone had authorized Markoff's presence in
Raleigh."

John Markoff leaves the search
team Monday night. The air's
getting a little thick anyway, and it's not as if Markoff doesn't have
plenty to do. He needs to get back to the Sheraton to write up his
notes.

"They were talking about having gotten rid of him," recalls Or-
sak. "Burns and the Quantico guys. They were not pleased. Burns
was saying, 'the FBI doesn't do business that way.' "

So the hunt continues, minus the reporter. Orsak drives Burns's
car to the shopping center. They sit and joke about UFOs, while Fred
takes the Quantico guys for a couple of tours around the Player's
Club. Two Raleigh PD cars cruise up, and then the agents flash their
badges and the cops go on their way. On the third pass, the van
drops a lone FBI agent with a small handheld device to attempt to
narrow Mitnick's location. He's dressed casually, with an average-
looking jacket. "The bag looks like a camera bag," remembers Or-
sak. "No antenna. It's just a signal strength meter. This one agent
goes on foot with it and actually walks up and down the hall in the
apartment building. It's kind of like the Cellscope. But as you get
closer, and the signal starts to saturate, you've got an attenuator to
turn down the sensitivity."

The next day at the switch, Murphy and Orsak listen while Shi-
momura makes one more plea with Special Agent Burns to go along
for the bust. He's been after the agent since he first arrived.

"I understand you'd want to go," says Burns. "We just don't do
that."

But Shimomura presses. He's concerned about getting his hands
on Mitnick's equipment. "He said he had to have physical evidence
he was on Netcom," recalls Orsak. "He was concerned the FBI
would grab all the goodies and not let him see that."

But the harder Shimomura pushes, the more Burns brings up
Markoff.

"Can I trust you not to bring everybody in the press along?" the
FBI agent asks.

But Shimomura won't take no for an answer. "The reason I was
hired by the Internet companies was because I assured them that I
would be there to limit the damage," Shimomura argues. "What if
he's got command files built in to destroy things?"

Still, Burns is unconvinced. "We can't have a civilian in a search
and seizure."

But Shimomura won't give up easily. "Who do you have that's
going to be able to insure that there's damage control for these Inter-
net providers?"

Murphy watches Burns closely. It's clear the FBI agent doesn't
have an answer. "I have to clear it first," the agent says.

LeVord Burns has to call FBI Headquarters in Washington.

That same day, Tuesday, February 14, Assistant U.S. Attorney John
Bowler phones the office of the United States Magistrate and warns
Magistrate Judge Wallace Dixon he will probably ask him to issue a
search warrant that evening.

A little after 8:30 p.m., Burns and Bowler arrive at the magistrate's
home. The magistrate quickly sizes up the two men. He's taken aback
by Burns's casual garb, but then he realizes it's perfect for surveillance.
Powerfully built, Burns reminds him of a college linebacker. Bowler
Dixon knows from his courtroom. Dressed in his usual suit and tie, the
prosecutor appears to have just come from his office.

There isn't time to offer them a soda or tea. The magistrate invites
the men into his living room and they hand him a warrant and an
affidavit. What a load of gibberish, the magistrate thinks to himself.
Ten pages of technical jargon detailing arcane computer and phone
intrusions. He asks them to cut to the chase. Burns and Bowler run
down Mitnick's probation violation, his alleged computer breakins,
the thousands of supposedly swiped credit cards, and the high-tech
cat and mouse game that's led to the Player's Club. Now the magis-
trate is beginning to understand. He attends church near the Player's
Club, works out at a heaith club down the road, even jogs by the
complex's front entrance. What an irony, he thinks. The world's
most wanted computer hacker holed up a mile away.

The affidavit in Dixon's hands puts Kevin Mitnick in building 4640,
apartment 107, first rented February 4, "the precise date on which the
target began operating out of the Raleigh, North Carolina, area." But
in Magistrate Dixon's comfortable living room, Burns and Bowler
confess they have no idea whether Mitnick is in building 4640, or in an
apartment in one of the other sixteen buildings.

Upstairs, Dixon's wife is talking on the portable phone, hearing
all sorts of beeps and buzzes, when out of the window she notices a
vehicle parked in the driveway. "Here's where it gets a little un-
usual," the magistrate later recalls. "The whole time they were talk-
ing to me they had some educated person out in a law enforcement
van electronically tracking the stuff at the apartment."

But the peculiar evening has only just begun. Dixon flips through
the papers and notices Bowler forgot to bring the search warrant.
"Bowler was anxious to move the surveillance team from my drive-
way to the Player's Club," recalls Dixon. "He asked if it would be
OK to use my telephone and call his secretary [to bring the war-
rant]."

The magistrate has a solution. "I told him [Bowler] if he wanted
to he could accept an alternative. He could have her prepare more
[warrants], I told them that in my view it would be permissible, OK
for me to sign those warrants, so long as we had an understanding
that they would make no efforts to search until they'd pinpointed
him and then gotten approval. I told them that was permissible. I
would authorize that."

Bowler and Burns agree to the magistrate's conditions and
promptly leave for the Player's Club. Within half an hour Bowler's
secretary and a co-worker arrive at Magistrate Dixon's home with a
warrant for apartment 107, and something unusual.

"There was more than one blank," Magistrate Dixon later recalls
of the warrants, which simply list Raleigh, North Carolina, as the
address to be searched. "My guess is there were three."

At 9:10 p.m., U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Dixon signs the first
blank warrants of his career.

Across from the Player's Club, the FBI sets up its surveillance team,
but all is quiet. Bowler guesses Mitnick's gone offline to grab a late-
night bite.

Shortly before midnight, Mitnick goes online again and the sur-
veillance team begins tracking him to the Player's Club. But the FBI
can't seem to pin down the hacker. They know he's in one of the
buildings, they just aren't sure which one. The signals are bouncing
between the buildings, confounding the agents.

Then, suddenly, around 1 a.m., the FBI gets a lucky break. But
according to the government it has nothing to do with high technol-
ogy. The governnment's story is that Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark
Chapman sees Kevin Mitnick stick his head out of a door.

Marshal Chapman walks up to building 4550 and knocks on
apartment 202. The time is around 1:28 a.m. The fugitive is inside,
talking on the phone to his mom in Las Vegas.

Mitnick asks the visitor to identify himself.

"FBI," Mitnick hears the caller say.

The agent just wants to ask him some questions. Kevin Mitnick,
the world's most wanted hacker, talks to the federal agent outside
his door. He's still on the phone too. At 1:44 a.m., Mitnick says
goodnight to his mom and phones his aunt, Chickie Leventhal, at
Chickie's Bail Bonds in Los Angeles.

Then, finally, Mitnick opens the door slightly, demanding to see a
search warrant. He tries to close the door, but a black agent jams the
door with his foot, and several agents shove their way in.

Mitnick demands to see a search warrant, but he's ignored.

"Kevin, do you know how we caught you?" Mitnick recalls a U.S.
Marshal taunting him.

At 1:47 a.m. Mitnick phones his attorney, John Yzurdiaga, in
Redondo, California. Yzurdiaga asks to speak to one of the FBI
agents and demands they produce a search warrant or leave his cli-
ent's apartment. Burns finally leaves saying he's going to get a search
warrant, only to return several minutes later with just an arrest war-
rant. When Mitnick repeats his demand Burns once again leaves the
apartment to get a search warrant.

Meanwhile, the other agents ignore Mitnick's protests and search
his apartment. They pull out a wallet from the buttoned pocket of
Mitnick's leather jacket, emptying the contents. The FBI continues
searching through Mitnick's things. Half an hour passes, and still no
sign of Burns or a search warrant.

Here's what Assistant U.S. Attorney Bowler says happened the night
of Mitnick's arrest:

When the defendant came to the door he was actually on the tele-
phone with someone. After recognizing Mitnick, the agents entered
the apartment and performed a protective sweep of the apart-
ment. . . .

The agents then asked the defendant to identify himself. Mitnick
then stated he was "Thomas Case" and produced a recently ob-
tained North Carolina Driver's license, credit card, and checkbook
all in the false identity of "Thomas Case." . . . After the defendant
placed the wallet on a countertop, the agents examined the contents
and discovered a series of other identification with several other
false names. The defendant then hastily closed an open black brief-
case. He was then handcuffed and placed under arrest.

Special Agent Burns then left the apartment and placed a telephone
call to the Magistrate [Dixon] and informed him of the arrest and
the correct location. The Magistrate then authorized the agents to
proceed with the search and instructed them to complete the blank
search warrant with correct apartment and building numbers.

A copy of the warrant was provided to the defendant for his review.
The defendant was advised of his Miranda rights by Special Agents
Burns and Thomas. He refused to sign an acknowledge form and
asked to call someone he identified as his attorney.

But the magistrate was sound asleep when he got the call after 2 a.m.
from Agent Burns. And the magistrate knew exactly what Burns did
and didn't say.

"Judge Dixon?"

"Yes."

"This is Agent Burns."

"You were here earlier this evening?"

"Yes, I was."

"I recognize your voice."

"We've got a fix on him, Judge. We've targeted him. We know the
apartment now."

"You're good to search."

Magistrate Dixon insists Burns never told him the FBI had already
entered Mitnick's apartment and begun a warrantless search with-
out having obtained his permission. In his living room, the magis-
trate had specifically instructed Burns to phone him and gain his
approval before beginning any search. And Dixon swears the FBI
agent never told him he'd already placed Mitnick under arrest.