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Man Stalks Ex-girlfriend With GPS

grouchomarxist writes "According to this article at CNN: Police arrested a man they said tracked his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts by attaching a global positioning system to her car. Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellular phone to the woman's car on August 16 with a motion switch that turned on when the car moved, transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite. Information was then sent to a Web site that allowed Gabrielyan to monitor the woman's location." A ruling last year stated that police need a warrant to track individuals in a similar fashion.

15 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Perfect metaphor by cgenman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >The woman learned how Gabrielyan was following her when she discovered him under her car attempting to change the cell phone's battery, police said.

    This is a perfect metaphor for the 21 century... Hyped futuristic capabilities with obvious and forgotten shortcomings. 12v line from the power system, anyone?

    If you are going to be compulsively obsessed to the exclusion of all else, at least sweat the details.

  2. Re:WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? by josecanuc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article also mentions that the data is sent over a cellular telephone (changing the batter of which is apparently how the guy was found out).

    So this must mean that the media thinks that cellular phones communicate with satellites. One wonders what they think of all those towers that have been going up for decades...

  3. You again by MikeMacK · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Police said Gabrielyan tracked the 35-year-old woman, who was not identified, after she ended their relationship, showing up unexpectedly at a book store, an airport and dozens of other places where she was.

    Dozens? After about the first six she should have gotten a restraining order.

  4. Hopefully ppl will understand now why privacy... by jbash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is so important. There are LEGITIMATE REASONS to not want to have a tracking device in your car, not just tinfoil hat paranoia. Sure there may be "privacy protections" but keep in mind that a company's privacy is only as strong as the minimum wage employee who's bribed $100 to let a stalker have some info.

  5. It's Funny.... by darkmeridian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every time I read one of these stories of a guy wigging out because his girlfriend dumped him, I always think, "Hey, Chief, do ya think she was on to something?" I mean, girl dumps boy. Boy stalks her using GPS. Maybe she was onto something in dumping him?

    --
    A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  6. Re:This is exactly why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Actually this proves beyond a shadow of doubt that he's an idiot. He would have attached the phone into the car headlights/parking lights for recharging if he were a real geek!

    Instead he get's caught trying to change a battery... Stupid.

  7. He's not very good by Eric(b0mb)Dennis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He's not a very good stalker if he was under her car changing the battery to the cell-phone!

    I mean, he could of spent a little time and hooked it up to the car battery (it's possible) and on TOP of that, he could have used a phone that auto-accepts incoming calls when a hands-free headset is used, and just short the HF plug-in spot to make the phone think one is plugged in.. and

    whalla, you have a tracker/voice-listener thingy-ma-jigger!

    --
    Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
  8. What if it was your wife, though? by Myrrh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This got me wondering, though. What if, for example, I was to do something like this to my wife's car? I own the car, right? So I should be able to modify it (within safety concerns of course) how I see fit.

    Not that I'm saying I'd stalk my own wife, or anything. I'm just wondering what makes stalking one's girlfriend fundamentally different than stalking, say, one's wife.

  9. Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by lee7guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They also arrest and execute criminals.

    No civilized governments do that. Civilized governments arrest and prosecute criminals. Then according to what fits the bill best, they fine, jail or give them proper psychological treatment.

    Do you live in some barbaric third world country where torture and imprisonment without fair trials are still part of the legal system too?

    --
    Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
  10. There's always a dark side... by nietzsche_freak · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Think of television, radio, and the printing press--all fantastic technologies which have transformed our world and improved our lives, right?

    Now think of the capabilities these technologies gave the Nazi propagandists of the 1930s and 1940s.

    There's a dark side to every new technology. For a small class of people, technological advances will always represent only fantastic new ways to wage war, or to harrass and murder their fellow man.
  11. Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by Glasswire · · Score: 4, Insightful

    She didnt say she didn't have a boyfriend, she said she wanted to know where you could get one that would care where she was. Clearly she has a boyfriend whose trust in her she interprets as indifference.

    Too bad.

  12. Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by lee7guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No. Your point being?

    --
    Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
  13. Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's a hint: next time a guy takes the time to get to know you and is actually a nice guy, don't brush him off with the 'I see you as a friend' routine while you fall in love with the first unemployed alcoholic that crosses your path.

  14. Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you don't have damages, why would you complain? Why would it make the news?

    The FBI was tracking MLK and even harrassing him. What about that?

    What am I afraid of? At the worst, political blackmail on a large scale.

    Everyone has somthing to hide. Imagine a scenario where those who go against the powers that be will be outed and exposed, just like in the Soviet Union. Everyone had a skeleton in their closet. In the USSR, it was only outed if you did the politically wrong thing. Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" has a nice description of this on a personal level near the end. It only has to happen if a person is likely to come into a position of power. Everyone else's files are just "insurance."

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  15. Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by stor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An eye for a fucking eye.

    "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." --Ghandi

    Cheers
    Stor

    --
    "Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"