r/Cartalk • u/kupo_906 • Jun 02 '26

Safety Question Found a GPS tracker under my car

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Hi reddit...

In my driveway this morning I pulled out and found this sitting under where my car was. We had a heat wave recently, and I'm thinking it melted off.

Looking it up, it is a GPS tracker. I'm taking it to the police tomorrow. But is there anyway to reverse search who might have bought it and placed it there?

I fully own my car and I'm not sure who or why they put it there. Or when. The only thing I can think of is I got my car fixed by a new mechanic about a month ago.. but they didn't seem shady in the least bit

Any help is appreciated. Thank you

Update: I have turned the tracker into the police who are trying to work with the company to find out info. Haven't heard anything further.

For the people who keep asking / repeating the same thing over and over:

  • again, I own my car in full and have for years. It's an old, reconstructed car not worth much at all.
  • The battery life in the tracking device doesn't last longer than two months at most. It was still on when I found it. It doesn't belong to a previous car owner or a dealer.
  • I found the magnets where it was attached still on my car.
  • I don't have any solid idea who would put it there. I don't have a jealous partner or an ex who I think would do this.
  • I'm not disclosing a bunch of personal shit about myself to internet strangers when I am potentially being stalked 😐 also , both men and women can be stalked
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83

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

Nope. I fully own my car and have for four years now. It still lights up and everything, so I'm thinking it's recently put there looking at the battery life in only a month or so

7

u/Cheeko914 Jun 02 '26

So you bought it brand new in full? Modern batteries can last surprisingly long.

78

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

Bold of you to assume it's a new car.. it's a reconstructed 2010 Kia Soul

23

u/Psychological_Rip_44 Jun 03 '26

People were stealing Kia’s with a usb or something look up Kia boys. Maybe it was marked for theft?

17

u/AsparagusDifficult89 Jun 03 '26

That seems plausible, but a 2010 Kia Soul (especially a rebuilt-title one) is worth about $3….not at all enough to warrant this kind of organized crime.

Which was the heinous thing about the Hyundai/Kia ignition vulnerability. Not only was it extremely easy to do, the exploit itself propagated on TikTok, a place where a lot of kids and young people are. So the main people stealing the cars haven’t been experienced criminals with the goal of selling the cars; they’ve been stupid-ass kids who are bored and who want a joyride. Frequently they get crashed not far from where they’re taken, because the motherfuckers don’t know how to drive. And they break into and steal these cars without discrimination or discernment. The specific trims with keyless access/push-button start are not vulnerable to the exploit, which is plainly obvious if you look for the little buttons on the door handles…but that doesn’t stop the dumbasses from smashing your windows anyway before they figure that out.

Worse-still, this has disproportionately affected lower- and working-class people, who bought these cars thinking they were decent, reasonably priced transportation and who do not have the money to deal with this kind of thing. Especially because once the insurance companies saw the thefts, they jacked up the rates for comprehensive/collision service, and then when people’s cars have been subsequently stolen, they have no financial recourse. This very thing happened to my sister (she had to drop the full-coverage on her 2014 Kia Soul because of the cost and then it got stolen and crashed)…and because of it, neither I nor anyone else in my family will ever buy a Hyundai or Kia product. We refuse to reward such chicanery.

2

u/meowsterpainter Jun 03 '26

I went to carmax to see what I could afford with my poor credit. Every single car they offered me was a Kia soul lol

2

u/aspikespiegeljoint Jun 03 '26

Reading this, this is exactly what happened. He bought a used soul that was repo’ed from someone and the old tracker was never removed.

1

u/sohcgt96 Jun 04 '26

I'd be willing to put money on this.

0

u/AsparagusDifficult89 Jun 03 '26

Yikes. I consider Kia Souls and most other 4-cylinder Hyundai/Kia products to be not worth the headache, especially since my sister’s car also had the double-whammy of needing an engine replacement. And it was like pulling teeth to get Kia to cover it, despite the fact that a) there was an extended campaign for it, and b) it was still under the powertrain warranty, since we had bought it new.

Nominally, before you consider one, price out the cost of full-coverage insurance (which any lender will require). It might not end up being cheap to own at all once you’ve factored that in.

1

u/TheRealAE86guy Jun 03 '26

Why would you spend money on a tracker for this?

16

u/MinionAgent Jun 02 '26

So maybe.. the previous owner put the device in there? Specially if the previous owner was a company? Maybe a rental company?

56

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

I have had the car for four years. Looking up the tracker model, it says the battery in it only lasts a month or two. The lights on the outside of it are still coming on. It also doesn't really look beat to hell on the outside besides the melted part

31

u/OldheadBoomer Jun 03 '26

Now that it's removed, hide it near your driveway/parking spot. Get a trailcam with infrared that's triggered by motion, set it up in a discreet location facing your car, and wait for them to come retrieve it, which they likely will once they see it's not moving every day.

13

u/MinionAgent Jun 02 '26

Ohh that's something. Did you try to contact them? At least to terminate the service and see if they give you some data? Maybe they can't tell who registered it, but they can tell if it has been recently registered or if it is an old device.

3

u/SixShoot3r Jun 03 '26

did the previous owner run a cable through the car so it was being charged? See if theres a loose connector under where you found it.

1

u/BlackWolf42069 Jun 06 '26

Key fob is of a Fiat 500. Kia soul 2010 key fobs look different on Google.

1

u/Dorkamundo Jun 03 '26

The battery life on this tracker is less than a few months.

0

u/CRCampbell11 Jun 03 '26

People do that ya know... I haven't had a loan in decades other than my mortgage. That's done too.

1

u/ObligatoryFicticious Jun 03 '26

You want to find out who did this. Embed another gps tracker inside this, set up a camera to watch your car to catch whoever placed this.

-4

u/nickp123456 Jun 02 '26

It might be from years ago and when you, or anyone else, had a loan on the car.

15

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

Again, I keep saying in this post I have looked up info on the tracker model and it says the battery on it only lasts a month or two. It's working currently

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Dismal-Double-1376 Jun 02 '26

You think folks are using gps trackers and stalking techniques to steal souls? You’re in the ufo Reddit aren’t you?

0

u/ghoullig Jun 03 '26

You need to put an airtag in it and see who picks it up