Hey, with all the high-tech gadgets that are part of our lives, it’s understandable how a guy could get one mixed up with another. Our tale of the high-tech challenged takes place in Babylon, N.Y. For several hours, it looked like the city was SOL — Seriously Outta Luck — when 14 expensive GPS devices — intended to be used by operators of their snowplows, street sweepers and dump trucks — were missing.

The public-works garage had been burglarized and there were no clues. Then Suffolk County police and town officials put their heads together and came up with the same gamble that any technogeek teenager would have tried immediately: They turned their GPS receiver on and hit “search.”

Bingo! One of the errant GPS devices was on and operating, and officers easily homed in on a residence in nearby Lindenhurst. When the cops arrived, they found 46-year-old Kurt Husfeldt standing there with the stolen unit in his hands, trying to figure out how that funny-lookin’ “cell phone” worked.

Husfeldt, his 13-year-old son and a 20-year-old accomplice were charged in the theft. They thought they had stolen a buncha fancy new cell phones and were trying to get one to make a call. It did, sorta, but not the kinda call they expected. It called momma and said, “Here I am! Come get me!”

Glowing Scents

“That cop was rude, but at least he smelled nice.” That’s how some police complaints may read when the sticky summer heat steams up cops in India’s western state of Gujarat. Government officials long ago realized that police officers working long hours in the heat smelled worse than the funky felons they were arresting, and commissioned the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad to do something about it. They promptly went into a high-tech frenzy of fabric research and the results will be hittin’ the streets by the time you read this.

The state’s 300,000 cops are all getting new uniforms treated with a long-lasting solution that inhibits bacterial growth and is permanently suffused with the scents of wildflowers and lemons. Of course, an officer can still simmer up a nasty case of highly localized armpit odor, but at least now he’ll smell like a combination of funky-monkey, petunias and citrus. I’m not sure that in extreme cases that’ll be much of a gain.

The new uniforms are also engineered with built-in, light-reflective prints and fiber-optic technology so they’ll glow in the dark — and that’s where I would draw the line. When I worked graveyard shift, darkness was my friend. It was bad enough havin’ street lights reflecting off the top of my bald head.

Ah, Sweet Justice

Glenn Vickers puts the “car” into “Karma.” Mr. Vickers was sorta weaving his high-speed way up Highway 64 in West Virginia when he found his personal racetrack obstructed by a plain-Jane lookin’ sedan that was crawling along just doin’ the speed limit. Apparently Vickers’ judgment, as well as his motor skills, had been affected by some recreational alcohol intake and using his horn, he loudly and repeatedly “insisted” that the driver get outta his way.

Trouble was, there was nowhere for the driver of that sedan to go. There was only one lane each way and the driver, Mike Rutherford, couldn’t levitate his car straight up, and he refused to drive off into the ditch. Mike’s a very responsible driver. He has to be. He’s the sheriff of Kanawha County and the sedan is a county car. Mike maintained his safe and steady speed, ignoring Vickers’ tailgating and honking.

Mike finally reached his off-ramp and glanced at his angry tailgater in the rearview mirror. Vickers zoomed up where Mike could see him clearly, ostentatiously flipped him a single-finger salute — lost control of his car and crashed into a guardrail. Sometimes you don’t have to wait too long for what’s goin’ around to come around.

Cuddly Con

Ya would think that one of the rules if you’re wanted for murder is “be discreet.”

But, of course, we understand — being on the run from a double-homicide charge can make a man awfully lonely. Calvin Bennett, 26, wanted for two fatal shootings in Arkansas, made it all the way to Wisconsin before he sorta settled in and started looking for some pleasant female company. He felt secure and confident enough to post his photo on an Internet dating Web site.

But his timing could have been better, we think. His picture hadn’t been on the Internet very long before his mug was plastered all over TV, on “America’s Most Wanted.”

Police were deluged with calls. To make his arrest even easier, Bennett had posted his real name and address on the dating ad. Calvin was in custody within 12 hours. Bennett confessed to shooting his victims during a bungled burglary attempt. In his dating profile, Bennett said he “liked to cuddle.”

Road Block

South Carolina Highway Patrol officers don’t really mind when criminals bring evidence right to ’em and beg to be arrested, but they wish one idiot would have slowed down a little — they didn’t need high-speed evidence delivery service.

Two troopers parked their cruisers diagonally across northbound I-95 after a series of accidents caused a traffic jam near Santee. They were trying to get cars to slow down, and it worked. A Chevrolet Malibu scootin’ along at an estimated 70 mph roared up and plowed right into one of ’em, causing minor injuries to the driver.

Other troopers rushed up and found the Malibu’s trunk had popped open from the impact. Inside, they found two duffel bags containing 43 pounds of marijuana, a few un-smoked funny-weed cigarettes and a dash or two of cocaine.

Apparently the driver had been sampling the merchandise during his drive north.

Troopers simply had the unnamed 54- year-old from Florida step out of his busted Malibu and take a seat in the back of a waiting cruiser.