I looked around the room in amazement. This was the heart of a supposedly progressive San Francisco Bay Area, and yet the city planned on partnering with a powerful intelligence contractor to build a police surveillance center that, if press reports were correct, officials wanted to use to spy on and monitor locals. Something made that scene even stranger to me that night. Thanks to a tip from a local activist, I had gotten wind that Oakland had been in talks with Google about demo-ing products in what appeared to be an attempt by the company to get a part of the DAC contract.

“We wanted to surprise everyone and bring world peace and then we’re being escorted out by security guards, which I think is really unfair,” he added. “Doesn’t everyone want peace?”

Nivelo’s lawyer told him there was no fighting it; Ecuador wouldn’t extradite him back to the U.S., but due to an existing treaty between the two countries, Nivelo would have to serve time for the gold heist. Counting on his clean record in Ecuador, Nivelo figured his time in prison would be short. He got a year, and with good behavior, he was released after nine months.

“Listen, if you commit crime, you gotta pay. So I didn’t complain about that,” he said.