According to a report from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Alison Kessler reported to police that she was suspicious of how John Stacey, her son’s father, knew that she would be visiting the courthouse. She did not see anyone following her, which caused her to question how he knew where Alison was going.
During a visit to the mechanics, it was discovered a tracking device had been planted to the underside of the car.
According to private investigators and lawyers from South Florida, planting tracking devices on vehicles is illegal, but are also very cheap and easy to obtain.
Tracking devices specifically designed for finding belongings such as keys, wallets, luggage – have, according to the experts, led to an increase of anxiety of being stalked.
Recently, the technology giant Apple has released their new AirTags: a $30 wireless tracking device the size of a coin that the company says are “a super easy way to keep track of your stuff.”
Due to rising concerns of move invasive tracking, Apple updated its pledge last week to raise privacy for the devices. The AirTags have now been updated to emit a ping noise when the device has been separated from the owner for more than 8 hours. This would alert someone to the potential threat that they are being followed or stalked.
The AirTags originally used to ping after three days of separation from the owner.
Stalking cases are notoriously difficult to put together. Everything is so circumstantial. Did someone see him put it there? No? Were his fingerprints on it? No? Then how would you prove it?
Former Broward prosecutor Sasha Shulman
In Stacey’s case, he was accused of planting an Optimus 2 tracking device. This device costs about $40 online and boasts numerous 4 and 5-star reviews. The South Florida Sun Sentinel additionally notes that there are a handful of 1-star reviews, many of which were written tongue-and-cheek, ‘such as the one-star review from a customer who complained that the device was no match for the hammer her husband took to it when he found it on his truck.’
It was found that Stacey murdered Kessler’s son, Greyson, and then took his own life the day the planted tracking device was discovered.
Some would-be stalkers are ignorant of the fact that planting such devices are illegal, according to Steve Navarrete, a process server and private investigator from Miami.
They don’t flat out ask us to do it. But they’ll ask if it can be done, if they might get in trouble for it. Obviously, we don’t take those cases. I don’t even tell them how to do it.
‘Such devices sell on Amazon, Walmart and other retailers, each with thousands of customer reviews on their websites. Most cost less than $50, though some are more than $100, with subscription services running about $25 a month depending on how continuously you want the tracker to signal your cellphone,’ reports the Sentinel.
Fort Lauderdale private investigator Robert Crispin explained that these trackers are similar to that of guns: legal products that are used for legitimate purposes but can also be used for ‘nefarious’ actions. Police can use them for criminal investigations and the consumer can use them to keep tabs on teenage drivers, for example.
You cannot put a tracker on your girlfriend, your employee or your neighbor. And your ex is off-limits, too.
I’ve seen battery life range from 10 days to four months.
Robert Crispin
The report says experts explained illegal use is usually limited to cases of domestic violence and stalking.
You see this almost exclusively in cases where there is some kind of personal relation between the parties. Drug dealers tracking each other around town? That’s a situation created by movies. We don’t see that in real life.
Sasha Shulman
It’s been our experience that your intuition will tell you when to look. When the other person begins to change and starts to know things they shouldn’t know, that’s an indication.
Technology has become so accessible to the general public, and people don’t fear the law when it comes to electronic surveillance. If you’re involved in litigation, a child custody matter or a domestic violence matter, it’s always going to be a good idea to check.
Robert Crispin
Crispin’s business offers a service to sweep vehicles to search for these Bluetooth and GPS devices, but is not difficult for the masses to do on their own.
Nothing beats the human eye. The person looking has to take their time. Physically get underneath your car. Look in all the hidden compartments.
Giving a final piece of advice, Navarrete says, ‘Turn off location services on your cellphone. The same technology that allows you to find your lost iPhone can be used by someone to find you, a circumstance that’s not unusual in domestic relationships.’
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[17] As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. [18] They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. [19] Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.Lamentations 4:17-19
Illegal or not, I dunno about you, but I am getting REALLY sick and tired of all this tracking of every last cotton pick’n thing! These AirTags and other devices are nothing new, but as man continues to grow in iniquity, they will be used for more stalking and unnecessary monitoring of everything.
All of these trackers, and even media reports, are the subtle prepping of the masses to passively accept more trackables, watches, GPS’, and so on.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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