What I don't get is why he had to give it back. Since the FBI stuck it to his car isn't it his now? When they came to demand it back he should have refused. Are they going to arrest him for harboring stolen property? They gave it to him.
If I recall correctly he did ask for proof that it was theirs before he would hand it back, but I seem to remember they refused and basically threatened him into returning it.
What would they do to him if he just destroyed it as a suspicious, unknown, but potentially dangerous object?
Or had "accidentally" dislodged it and attached it to a freight truck.
"Jeez. This guy really drives a lot, for a student."
On the reddit thread way back, many people pointed out he could be charged with destruction of government property. I believe a few people even had precedences of this actually happening. But I'm not going to dig through the thread, so I'll mark my own comment as [Citation Needed].