Man Stalks Ex-girlfriend With GPS

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Man Stalks Ex-girlfriend With GPS

Posted by michael on Sunday September 5, 2004 @07:58AM from the oh-look-it's-you-again dept.

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.

35 of 415 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Awww, that's so romantic by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-05 07:59 · Score: 5, Funny

I need to get one for my girlfriend's car. Alright, she's not my girlfriend, yet, but she will be once I'm able to track her 24/7.
1. Re:Awww, that's so romantic by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-05 08:40 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  :) See this is what happens when someone becomes a slashdotter AFTER they have had a girlfriend, they learn all these cool things and can start stalking their exes.
  
  And isn't it cool a slashdotter (must have been a slashdotter) made "real news"?
This is exactly why... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-05 08:00 · Score: 5, Funny

See, this is exactly why we need fuel cells in our phones...I mean...eh...this is just wrong and illegal...
1. Re:This is exactly why... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-05 08:21 · 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.
Nice device ... by TheGavster · 2004-09-05 08:02 · Score: 4, Interesting

It actually sounds like a neat project, just a sketchy application. I wonder if its legal to attach one to, say, your child's car. Perhaps make the sensor a bit less sensitive, so it only broadcasts a signal after an impact-type shock.

--
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Changing the battery? by Qender · 2004-09-05 08:03 · Score: 4, Interesting

All this and he couldn't figure out how to hook the thing up to the car battery?
Better Articles by the+pickle · 2004-09-05 08:03 · Score: 5, Informative

This has also been covered briefly on Engadget and more thoroughly on BoingBoing, where links to the original article and the District Attorney's report are provided.

p

--
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? by RagingChipmunk · 2004-09-05 08:03 · Score: 5, Informative

"transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite." WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? ...Why does the News continually report GPS technology as sending data TO a satellite - GPS receivers are completely passive. Either our media/news is completely ignorant, or they assume that all their readers are completely ignorant.

--
The only PT Boat Journal on the web: http://www.PT171.org
1. Re:WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? by josecanuc · 2004-09-05 08:06 · 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...
2. Re:WOW - this guy had a SATELLITE too? by penguinoid · 2004-09-05 08:49 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  GPS receivers are completely passive
  
  I'll explain that better for everyone's benefit. Since GPS was a millitary technology, it was designed to allow you to find your position without yelling "I am here" to all your enemies. Now there is a difference between GPS tracking and cell phone tracking. Cell phones constantly communicate with the towers, which can triangulate and thus find the location of the cell phone, in this case it is the towers that are more passive (you could set up three recievers and track cell phones without sending out signals).
  
  So, that is why GPS is cool, and cell phone GPS-wannabe isn't.
  
  --
  Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Perfect metaphor by cgenman · 2004-09-05 08:03 · 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.

--
The ______ Agenda
My insurance company by glazed · 2004-09-05 08:05 · Score: 4, Funny

After a bad breakup with my car insurance company recently, they're doing the same
You again by MikeMacK · 2004-09-05 08:08 · 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.
Insurance? by keiferb · 2004-09-05 08:09 · Score: 4, Funny

Hey, combine this with the little black boxes Progressive Insurance has been pushing, and you too can have your insurance revoked in real-time while driving!
Just a bit of history repeating by da3dAlus · 2004-09-05 08:10 · Score: 4, Informative

See this archive on The Smoking Gun from a man arrested for doing the same thing in 2002. I guess someone else just took the hint and tried it again 2 years later.

"Meet Paul Seidler. The 42-year-old Wisconsin man was just busted on charges that he conducted a high-tech stalking campaign directed at a former girlfriend. Kenosha police allege that Seidler placed a Global Positioning System tracking device under the hood of the woman's car and began monitoring her movements."

Hey, it's a slow weekend, so I think a near-dupe of not-so-cutting-edge news is forgivable ;)

--

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Hopefully ppl will understand now why privacy... by jbash · 2004-09-05 08:20 · 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.
It's Funny.... by darkmeridian · 2004-09-05 08:21 · 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/
How is this different that widespread surveillance by smiff · 2004-09-05 08:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

For all of you people who say it's okay to put surveillance cameras on public streets, RFID tags on store merchandise, RFID readers on store doorways, and RFID toll-pass systems on highways. The general argument is that no one has a reasonable expectation of privacy in public.
Yet it is illegal for a private citizen to follow someone in public. What is with the double standard?
Re:Fear Dot Com by Stevyn · 2004-09-05 08:25 · Score: 4, Funny

Yeah, it'll be called "Fearer Dot Com"
Wow by dysprosia · 2004-09-05 08:38 · Score: 4, Funny

attaching a global positioning system to her car.
He created and attached an entire global positioning system of satellites to her car? Now that's impressive! I wonder how she didn't notice...
What if it was your wife, though? by Myrrh · 2004-09-05 08:43 · 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.
1. Re:What if it was your wife, though? by t_allardyce · 2004-09-05 08:55 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  She was his ex-girlfriend so that does make it pretty different. you could say you have a right to modify your own property and track your wife and if she has nothing to hide then why should she have a problem with it? but why should she have to be put in a situation like that? its no different from government cameras in your home - if you have nothing to hide, why should you care? but why should you be put in that position? there are all sorts of conflicting rights going on here and the whole thing needs some looking at.
  
  --
  This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Re:Fear Dot Com by wayward · 2004-09-05 08:50 · Score: 4, Funny

I never saw fear.com, but I kept wondering whether the lethal website had been created with Microsoft FrontPage.
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by wayward · 2004-09-05 08:55 · Score: 5, Funny

Where can I find a boyfriend who actually cares where I am?
Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by lee7guy · 2004-09-05 08:59 · 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
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by wayward · 2004-09-05 09:06 · Score: 5, Funny

No one here actually believes that you are a woman.
That's OK. My gynecologist does.
Limited ruling by imnoteddy · 2004-09-05 09:12 · Score: 4, Informative

A ruling last year stated that police need a warrant to track individuals in a similar fashion.
That was a ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court (the state I live in) and I remember reading about it. This ruling has no effect in the other 49 states or on the Feds. While the ruling may influence other judges, the Washington State Constitution generally has more citizen friendly rules on privacy and related matters than the U. S. Constitution or most state constitutions, which may narrow the applicability of the reasoning in this case to other judicial venues.

--
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by Zouden · 2004-09-05 09:42 · Score: 5, Funny

Where can I find a boyfriend who actually cares where I am?
Slashdot Personals. You'll get a GPS under your car in no time!

--
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
That'd be useful for my ex-wife... by rthille · 2004-09-05 09:51 · Score: 4, Interesting

But so I could _NOT_ run into her.

I kept running into her with my new girlfriend (obtained after the breakup with the wife). It was awkward, to say the least...

--
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by Glasswire · 2004-09-05 09:56 · 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.
Ouch. Convincing a gynecologist may be a bad move by Gnavpot · 2004-09-05 10:38 · Score: 5, Funny

You must have a lot of courage. Making a gynecologist believe that you are a woman sounds scary.

"Hey, what is that?"
"Dunno. Never saw one on any of my patients before. Remove it."
New Police song by AvantLegion · 2004-09-05 10:42 · Score: 4, Funny

Every drive you make...
And every trip you take...
Restraining orders I'll break...
Don't you try and fake...
I AM WATCHING YOU
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-05 11:12 · 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.
Re:Where can I buy a mobile phone detector? by dipipanone · 2004-09-05 13:16 · Score: 4, Funny

Mod parent up: +5 rejected.
Re:How is this different that widespread surveilla by stor · 2004-09-05 13:42 · 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"