Man arrested over GPS 'stalking'

[emad]

David Teather in New York
Monday September 6, 2004
The Guardian
Snip
A Californian man has been arrested for allegedly using global positioning system technology to stalk a former girlfriend.
Ara Gabrielyan is said to have attached a mobile phone with the tracking system to the woman's car, allowing him to follow her movements.

The unidentified woman said he had turned up unexpectedly while she was having coffee at a bookshop, picking up a friend from the airport, visiting her brother's grave and at dozens of other places.

"This is what I would call stalking of the 21st century," said a police spokesman .

Mr Gabrielyan, 32, from Glendale, is said to have phoned the woman 30 to 100 times a day after she ended their two-year relationship six months ago. She called the police and had him arrested after seeing him underneath her car, changing the phone's battery.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1297892,00.html

Scary or what?

[Demeter]

1. Stupid, Actually

No plausible deniability there. Just a guaranteed jail term. But nobody said the guy was smart.

[Hepburn]

2. This stuff is scary, but I managed to have a good time with it...

....I dated someone for awhile and afterwards we just became friends - actually pretty good friends. He started to date someone else and apparently she did not like the fact that he and I got along very well. Suddenly, she started turning up way too many places where I was - like just running into me in the grocery store. She has a large SUV that is not too difficult to spot and at the oddest times I would see her a few cars behind me in traffic or, like I said, she would just appear. Maybe it is just a California thing, but the first thing I thought of was that she was tracking me with some sort of a GPS device. So, I checked my car and sure enough under the back bumper there was a black box attached with magnets. I could not definitely prove she had put it there, but it seemed pretty obvious that she had.

Well, I took the thing and put it on my ex's car and left it there for few days when I knew she would be out of town. And then I got it and tossed it in a garbage dumpster! She must have had a good time for a few days trying to figure this out. His car is parked in his garage and she had to have thought it was my car in his garage. Seems like a nice payback to let her think my car was in there while she was gone. And I managed to cost her a few bucks, too. Seems like this device cost her around $1,000 - the best I could tell from looking at the internet - and it was Real Time tracking which means that she could acutally follow my movements on a map on her computer or lap top and just like the guy who got arrested, she would just conveniently show up. She must have gone nuts for the few days she was out of town and thought I was staying with him.

Stunned me that anyone would do something like this. This woman is nearly 60 years old and a pychologist. I cannot say 100% that she for sure did this...but I have no doubts she did. So far, I have not seen her again and hopefully she learned an expensive lesson. What I could not figure out is why she was so interested in me! BTW: My friend stopped dating her because she was "too possessive." I was not too surprised about that coming out and if he had not stopped dating her, I would told him about the GPS system I found on my car - I just would NEVER have told him where I put it for awhile! :evilgrin:

[mike_c]

3. I can't help but feel a little sorry for both of them....

I certainly don't want to defend this guy's behavior, but I can't help but wonder what desperation drove him to do this. Calling 30 to 100 times a DAY?! Following her around? That sounds obsessive-compulsive to me, and OC people are often the victims of their compulsions.

It's easy and tempting to only see the criminal side of this-- he stalked her, for god's sake-- but I find myself feeling sorry for both of them.