Recently, I hosted some houseguests for the holiday season, and it turned out that a few of them were big fans of the original Star Trek series. This gave me a rare opportunity to share something special from my collection that few people truly appreciate: an authentic Tribble prop from one of the most famous episodes of the original series, “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
But what makes this piece truly special isn’t just what it is – it’s the story of how I acquired it, which involves some creative application of my OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) skills from my government career.
The One That Got Away
Years ago, while I was still working my government job, I would regularly attend the SANS conferences in Las Vegas. I was on a government salary and paying my own way, which wasn’t easy. During one of these trips, I discovered something remarkable in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace – a luxury mall connected to the casino.
In one of the high-end memorabilia stores, displayed among presidential autographs and movie star collectibles, sat an authentic Tribble prop in a beautiful shadow box frame. The price tag? $10,000 – might as well have been $10 million on my salary at the time. I made myself a promise that day: someday, I’d have “Tribble money.”
Every subsequent trip to Vegas, whether for SANS or BlackHat, I would make a pilgrimage to visit “my” Tribble. This continued for several years until one devastating visit when I found it was gone. The staff confirmed it had been sold, and I thought I’d missed my chance forever.
The OSINT Way
But I didn’t give up. Instead, I applied one of the skills I’d honed during my government career: persistent monitoring. I set up Google alerts for specific keywords related to Star Trek Tribbles, creating a passive monitoring system that would notify me if anything interesting surfaced.
Then one day, an alert fired: someone was selling what they claimed was an authentic Tribble on eBay for around $200. Initially skeptical – it could have been anything from a cat toy to glued-together dog fur – I reached out to the seller to learn more about its provenance.
The Authentication Process
The seller turned out to be a wonderful lady with an fascinating story. She had worked as an assistant for a TV show in the Bay Area that regularly featured original Star Trek cast members as guests. As I dug deeper into her story, everything checked out: the show was legitimate, and its host had even MCed the first-ever Star Trek convention in 1970.
After thorough research that would have made my OSINT mentors proud, I was convinced: this was the real deal. The seller had ended up with two Tribbles from her time with the show, giving one to a children’s puppet show in Oregon and keeping the other until now.
The Unexpected Bonus
I purchased the Tribble for less than $400 – a fraction of that $10,000 price tag I’d seen years before. When I asked the seller if she had any additional documentation to support its authenticity, she went above and beyond. The package arrived containing not just the Tribble, but an envelope full of original behind-the-scenes photographs from the episode’s filming, including some 8×10 prints. She included a personal letter sharing stories from that era, including the fact that she had dated James Doohan (Scotty) for a while, complete with a photo of her younger self.
The Lesson
Yes, I know this is supremely nerdy, and there are far more Star Wars fans than Star Trek fans these days. But sharing this piece of television history with other enthusiasts who appreciate its significance brings me genuine joy.
More importantly, this story illustrates how skills from our professional lives can have unexpected applications in our personal pursuits. The persistent monitoring techniques I used for force protection and tracking emerging situations during my government career helped me acquire this treasure (and several other great deals) at a fraction of their usual cost.
Sometimes, the methods we use to secure infrastructure or gather intelligence can help us find our own personal tribbles – whatever they may be.
