A California college student got an unexpected visit from the FBI last week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online, Wired.com reported.

The post prompted speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do, according to Wired.com.

It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.

The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday demanding he return the device.

Afifi, a business marketing student at Mission College in Santa Clara, discovered the device last Sunday when he took his car to a local garage for an oil change. When a mechanic at Ali’s Auto Care raised his Ford Lincoln LS on hydraulic lifts, Afifi saw a wire sticking out near the right rear wheel and exhaust, according to Wired.com.

The whole incident outraged Moslem civil rights advocates. The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) called the FBI’s attempts to track Afifi “outrageous” and says it is now seeking answers as to why Afifi was targeted in the absence of any indication that he was engaged in criminal activity.

CAIR says that two San Jose-based FBI agents allegedly admitted to placing the device on his car and asked for it to be returned. FBI agents further questioned the young man, the son of a Bay Area community leader, about his travels to the Middle East and his friends.

CAIR alleges the agents used “problematic” tactics to coerce cooperation, despite the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Afifi. Toward the end of the questioning, the FBI agents allegedly told the man he was “boring,” CAIR claims.

“It is outrageous that these Arab-American and Muslim community members continue to be targeted by FBI agents without any allegations or evidence of wrongdoing,” said CAIR-SFBA Programs and Outreach Director Zahra Billoo, who is also Afifi’s attorney. “My client’s encounter raises concerns that the FBI’s precious investigative resources are being squandered on domestic intelligence escapades that target innocent Americans.”

Civil liberties group are investigating the incident.