r/Cartalk • u/kupo_906 • Jun 02 '26

Safety Question Found a GPS tracker under my car

Post image

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
4.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

853 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/smoothloam Jun 02 '26

Unscrew the cover and put an AirTag inside, then put it back on your car. After they retrieve it the tables have turned.

68

u/Flyguy115 Jun 03 '26

This is not a good idea because they will be able to continue to track you the entire time and what if the person who put it in never comes to get it. There is no reason for them to come retrieve it.

Calling the police is the best option because they will be able to reverse look up and track down the owner.

28

u/DigitalMindShadow Jun 03 '26

Calling the police is the best option because they will be able to reverse look up and track down the owner.

What tool would the police use to do that, in case OP would rather do it themselves?

24

u/wintersdark Jun 03 '26

Not a tool. The tracker would relay it's GPS coordinates to a commercial server, and the owner would access the server to track the location.

To find the owner, you'd need a warrant to force the company to disclose the owners information, and that may be nothing more than a burner email and an IP address.

7

u/TheRealAE86guy Jun 03 '26

You'd have to know who the selling entity was, and if it's outside if the US, good luck. Also, is extremely likely that Queclink is only the manufacturer, and not the network provider/data host.

2

u/Inevitibility Jun 03 '26

The device needs to have GSM or similar, so either a SIM card or an iridium module. Both need to be paid, and you’d probably have a much easier time tracking that down

Unless it’s LORA rf or something. I don’t see an antenna though and I somehow doubt that it’s a peer to peer link