Seffner, Florida -- Investigators say they caught a Seffner man jamming people's cell phones during his commute down I-4.
And they're slapping him with the maximum fine allowed by law: $48,000.
Agents from the FCC say Jason R. Humphreys admitted to setting up the jammer in his SUV. He would crank it up during his daily drive down Interstate 4 between Seffner and Downtown Tampa, from 2011 to 2013.
The 60-year-old man said his goal was to keep drivers around him from talking on their phones. But its effects went far beyond that.
I pulled a copy of the complaint filed against him to get you all of the details.You can read it for yourself here.
MetroPCS noticed its towers along I-4 were getting scrambled at certain times of day, so they called in the Federal Communications Commission.
FCC agents staked out Humphreys' commute, tracked the interference, and busted him. They seized the jammer, and from that point on, MetroPCS said its towers were back to normal.
You can find ads selling cell phone jammers online but in almost every case they're illegal because they can also block 911 calls and even jam police radios.
The FCC says the radios of the deputies who pulled Humphreys over quit working as they got close to his SUV.
Investigators are hitting him with a $48,000 fine, which is the maximum possible under the law.
If you think someone is fooling with your cell phone signal, there's a hotline you can call. To reach the FCC cell phone jamming hotline, call 855-55-NOJAM (855-556-6526).
