Man Swallows Flash Drive to Evade Feds, Data Survives

After a four-day acid bath in Florin Necula’s stomach, a Kingston flash drive still held the files he had hoped to destroy.

What do you do when you’ve just been caught stealing $35,000, the evidence is on a flash drive, and you’re in police custody?

Swallow it, of course.

That’s the approach ATM scammer Florin Necula took when he found himself in that predicament last January. After Secret Service agents tracked him down and took him into custody, Necula “grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed,” according to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.

After waiting four days for nature to take its course and move the drive on from Necula’s digestive tract, he was taken to a hospital to have it surgically removed, because doctors feared for his safety.

The manufacturer of the 4GB flash drive, Kingston, wasn’t sure what to make of the debacle. “As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone swallowing a USB,” an executive told TSG. Amazingly enough, the New York Post reports that data recovery specialists were able to retrieve files from the drive.

Necula is now being charged, ironically enough, with obstruction of justice.