CTLawyer,
If it is true (as claimed in the story) that the use of these radios was endangering lives, then we good Jews who follow what is right according to the Torah need no sanction from secular law to confiscate them.
If someone is drowning, and for some reason the only way I can save them is by stealing your car and driving it off a cliff, I am required to do so. (It is possible I would have to compensate you afterward, although I seem to remember that in some cases even this Is not necessary, perhaps there is a machlokes about this.)