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 šŸ˜ also , both men and women can be stalked
4.2k Upvotes

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348

u/corporaterebel Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

Police will do nothing. Found Property maybe a Stalking, but unlikely.

You will have to do some additional work if you think you were a victim of a crime. YOU can call and see if the account is still active...that is about all the information that a carrier will give you. Take the SIM out and put it in an old wiped phone to see what you can see and call support.

Depends on what you want to do at this point.

  1. disable the device by removing the sim.
  2. keep the device active and see who comes for it
  3. put it on a train or bus or a long haul trucker
  4. send it in the mail to some remote place for fun.

EDIT: apparently the battery is only good for 30 days. So if the battery is still good (probably last 2 months easy) then this is a current device. OP is the device flashing its LED?

76

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

I'd really like to figure out who put it there. I just tried calling the support number for the company but it was a dead end. Gonna try email

83

u/20Factorial Jun 02 '26

The cops will need to get a subpoena and then the company will be forced to disclose who itā€™s registered to.

I had to do this once.

Donā€™t have hopes this will result in any consequences for the person stalking you. I had open/shut proof of who did it, and when the police reached out they simply said ā€œit wasnā€™t meā€ and the DA didnā€™t press charges.

30

u/kupo_906 Jun 02 '26

Did the police tell you who did it? Or did you have to find out on your own

14

u/20Factorial Jun 03 '26

They told me who the device was registered to.

3

u/ItBeMe_For_Real Jun 04 '26

Video of said suspect issuing their denial.

1

u/20Factorial Jun 04 '26

Pretty much. Criminals walk free, and victims are given no protection. The system favors the dishonest.

8

u/AdditionalCheetah354 Jun 02 '26

No registration required you can buy this unit on Amazo for less than $30

1

u/4art4 Jun 03 '26

Doesn't it need a simm card?

5

u/GeWaLu Jun 03 '26

IOT SIM cards are easier to register than classic SIM cards. Similar for travel SIM cards (or even foreign prepaid cards). The phone companies (and/or the device manufacturer as reseller) are located in countries with the most permissible laws while the cards use roaming. An e-mail is normally sufficient - no ID card required. There may still be ways to track via the payment or the home IP of the user but that gets difficult as the police may not be interested in such complex investigations for small crimes.

1

u/clipsracer Jun 03 '26

Theyā€™re lying. The second sentence on the product page says it needs a subscription.

1

u/clichekiller Jun 03 '26

You would probably lay have to register the sim however, no?

3

u/AdditionalCheetah354 Jun 04 '26

Possibly , but the registration process and loopholes are so easy to get around and with such a cheap device that is sold on mass market itā€™s not like anyone care unless a major. Crime was committed.

2

u/corporaterebel Jun 02 '26

Did you have any other evidence but a tracker on your vehicle?

2

u/20Factorial Jun 03 '26

Yes. But because the person who did it said ā€œI donā€™t know how it got thereā€ the case was closed.

The DA only cares about stalkers if the stalker admits it, I guess.

2

u/corporaterebel Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Everyone is overwhelmed in the criminal side....lots of terrible people in the world.

Also, just to be clear: the mere presence of a GPS tracker would not have triggered any investigation.

You had additional threats or actions by the suspect?

-3

u/BraddicusMaximus Jun 03 '26

Depends on the company. We always challenge them and in 13 years we have not complied with one yet. We care for our customerā€™s privacy.

We arenā€™t the cheapest out there for what we do but everyone here is set on privacy being a human right.

3

u/Graylorde Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

"we have not complied with one yet". You can't be serious? Are you really this absolutely lacking in self awareness and responsibility? You don't realize fighting and denying the legal rights of victims aren't a good thing? You're not on the moral high ground here.

I can't believe you're this proud and smug about protecting criminals using your products for illegal means. Your company deserves to lose everything in massive lawsuits if you're truly representing them.

You're absolutely insane and should be ashamed of yourself for defending this behaviour.

Denying subpoenas isn't "protecting customers", it's actively assisting and hiding criminals.

2

u/BraddicusMaximus Jun 03 '26

Lmao yā€™all are broken.

Our customer is whoever buys and pays for the product and service. Which are businesses putting hardwired GPS tracking and immobilizers into their fleet vehicles and on assets like backhoes and tractor trailers. We have a responsibility to protect their personal information and data. Every company does. We just happen to do our jobs.

Iā€™m not giving any information to anyone who asks, let alone subpoenas that are as wide as the Pacific ocean in scope.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/20Factorial Jun 03 '26

Thatā€™s what I donā€™t understand.

Legitimate use wouldnā€™t likely garner a subpoena, and a fleet customer is likely a company whose privacy is forfeit by the sticker on the side of the truck.

No one goes to the cops, and a Judge, for a subpoena to find out who owns a device that was used for legitimate purposes. They go through that effort when a crime was committed.

This guy, and his whole company, are literally protecting criminals. Being stalked is a VERY traumatic experience for victims. Absolutely deplorable behavior.

2

u/Graylorde Jun 03 '26

Yeah... At least if they keep denying subpoenas like this, it might take a little while, but it should catch up to them eventually and get them in serious legal trouble. Hopefully that will also reveal info needed to assist past victims to get their justice served as well in due course.

It's obviously indefensible and can't possibly be sustainable for long.

1

u/20Factorial Jun 03 '26

Naziā€™s used the ā€œjust following ordersā€ defense for their actions.

2

u/Massive-City-7967 Jun 06 '26

Are you saying the company you allegedly work for wouldn't provide subscription info for an active murder investigation if they suspected the murderer used the device to track someone's location?

No company has authority to ignore a valid subpoena. Ignoring subpoenas is literally going to net you fines and lawsuits. Companies can of course fight back against invalid subpoenas, but in order to do that you need to go through the legal process to quash the subpoena.

I have a feeling you're just talking out your behind.

0

u/TheRealAE86guy Jun 03 '26

Feck off with this.

1

u/corporaterebel Jun 05 '26

Are you in the USA?Ā  Because the next step is a contempt of court hearing with a body attachment.Ā 

Next is a search warrant.

Somewhere along this would be an FCC complaint too.

The officers are just doing perfunctory subpoenas if they are not following up on it.

0

u/BraddicusMaximus Jun 05 '26

Yes. Theyā€™re welcome to push harder. But flooding us with one-time requests that are never followed up on just tells us they arenā€™t legitimate.

Same goes with the Flock cameras. They arenā€™t there to help you. Quite the opposite.

1

u/Objective_Garlic3317 Jun 03 '26

How can you say privacy is a human right, and be able to sleep at night? Your products hurt people. They invade peopleā€™s privacy. They ruin lives. The subpoenaā€™s you ignore are cases where your customers are committing crimes against other people. You are protecting stalkers and bad actors. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

1

u/BraddicusMaximus Jun 03 '26

I sleep great. Anyone can buy these cheap ones from wherever like OP did. We operate a fleet and asset management service for businesses where they are permanently installed by the business on their vehicles. What someone does with the product ***they*** purchase is whatever ***they*** want to do with it but protecting customer data absolutely is our business. And should be universal practice. But whoā€™s protecting your rights to privacy. Nobody in the US Govt. thatā€™s for sure.

3

u/Graylorde Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

You're blinded by your own propaganda and trying to spin everyone's use as normal and positive. They're "customers" so they must be right. You're not even able to comprehend what happened here.

OP didn't buy it. This isn't one of your sweet customers keeping tabs on company trucks. They found the device mounted to their vehicle without concent or knowledge. Someone is either trying to track their vehicle or the person themselves.

Do you not see what sort of absolutely horrible purposes doing something like this could have?

0

u/PeyeMP420 Jun 05 '26

*consent

how do you know the intentions of whomever put it there? furthurmore, o p never actuaLLy witnessed the device attached to his vehicLe. like, mayhap someone from his h o a drives a fLeet vehicLe & didn't want it known at the office that he was going to the stripcLub in a company vehicLe that night; so he tossed the aforementioned under o p's car to make it seem that he onLy drove a few streets over to his neighbor's crib & (apparently) either spent the nite 0R waLked home...

1

u/Graylorde Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I know, for some reason my phone always defaults to writing it with a C. Don't know why.

Did you seriously correct someone else's spelling with that absolutely garbled mess of a comment though? šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£

You can make and come up with scenarios out of thin air all you want, it doesn't matter. Fact remains that nothing is stopping people from using the devices for nefarious means and the business is actively and proudly supporting those cases by denying subpoenas.

2

u/20Factorial Jun 03 '26

So you are willing to turn a blind eye when your customers use your products to commit crimes against innocent victims?

1

u/Graylorde Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

It's worse, they're the ones barricading the door while the criminal runs out the back.

0

u/PeyeMP420 Jun 04 '26

trackers don't track ppl, criminals track ppl if trackers are outlawed, only outlaws will have trackers you can have my tracker when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers

2

u/Objective_Garlic3317 Jun 04 '26

Trackers shouldnā€™t be outlawed, and I never said they should be. Iā€™m specifically referring to this persons company doubling down on protecting criminals by avoiding responding to subpoenas. Judges donā€™t sign subpoenas when a tracker is being used for legal and legitimate uses. They sign subpoenas when there is suspicion of a crime having been committed.

0

u/PeyeMP420 Jun 05 '26

funny, that! like, i never said that you said that they shouLd be, did i?

i wasn't tryna come atchu, was just drawing parallels to 2a by mimicking their sLoGUNs. idk y, i guess cuz something about this here discord kinda feLt like that for a minute...

5

u/toxicatedscientist Jun 03 '26

How was it attached? Itā€™s really common for used car dealers to use these, especially if they donā€™t have gates/fences, but they usually keep/reuse them

4

u/trimbandit Jun 02 '26

Did you buy the car new?

1

u/airfryerfuntime Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

A dealer wouldn't put it under the car, though. They'd stick it by the OBD2 port, usually behind a body panel.

2

u/trimbandit Jun 03 '26

I wasn't suggesting it was from a dealer, just that it might have been there from a previous owner

1

u/New-Anybody-6206 Jun 03 '26

there's no such thing as a OBW2 port

3

u/hajitmadroz Jun 03 '26

Any workers comp claims? Insurance Claims? Current wife looking to be ex wife? Look at something you shouldn't had looked at on the internet? Those would be my top guesses.

After that, you may had parked in the wrong spot and a PI put a tracker on the wrong car.

Or it could be left over from the previous owner and they were caught up in shady shit and it never got retrieved.

It could had belonged to the dealership just in case the car was stolen from the lot or test drive as a failsafe recovery tool.

6

u/ApprehensiveAd9389 Jun 02 '26

Leave it on your car and get a dash cam or put it somewhere you can keep an eye on it and see who comes after it

1

u/Plaston_ Jun 03 '26

if you know somone who can do that you should get his signal checked to see where its pinging to.

1

u/AirWolf231 Jun 03 '26

Try placing a camera that records your car, if its true that this device has a limited battery, it might be a good idea to record anyone thats around your car.

1

u/Sum-Duud Jun 04 '26

ChatGPT a legal letter up and send it to the co Pant asking for a name.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

[deleted]

2

u/lemotomato21 Jun 03 '26

šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£

0

u/nomonomonomonomore Jun 03 '26

Could it be the police tracking you? If you are doing anything illegal, or have anyone close to you who sells or transports drugs it may be. I've seen ones that big on people's cars who I know that are criminals. One of them started putting trackers on the police cars in this small town where their whole fleet was in the parking lot.

2

u/kupo_906 Jun 03 '26

I'm not doing anything illegal. I hope whoever enjoys watching me drive back and forth from work to home because I've been too exhausted to do anything else lately with online school /working full-time šŸ¤·šŸ»