How to find tracking device

if there's one on my car, is there a 'best' place to look or a sure fire way to know?

I don't know that he has or would do that but...

Before anyone suggests asking, that's not an option. If it's true he'll lie, if it isn't then I've made a mess that I may not be able to clean up.


Most of you know that I'm not living in Camelot even though I tried for a long time to pretend I am.
We've gone from me being asked not so subtle questions about where I've been or how long I stayed at different places to no questions at all sort of abruptly.

I got a new car and he was very keen to wash and wax it for me--once.
Now I've been told that it's bad for the paint to use any sort of automated car wash or go to the places where you pay them to do it.
Maybe someone could tell me if that's true?

I feel like crap even posting this. No things aren't perfect and I don't want to believe this.
There's just a rising tide of strangeness and bells are starting to go off.

NotHisLady said:

if there's one on my car, is there a 'best' place to look or a sure fire way to know?

I don't know that he has or would do that but...

Before anyone suggests asking, that's not an option. If it's true he'll lie, if it isn't then I've made a mess that I may not be able to clean up.


Most of you know that I'm not living in Camelot even though I tried for a long time to pretend I am.
We've gone from me being asked not so subtle questions about where I've been or how long I stayed at different places to no questions at all sort of abruptly.

I got a new car and he was very keen to wash and wax it for me--once.
Now I've been told that it's bad for the paint to use any sort of automated car wash or go to the places where you pay them to do it.
Maybe someone could tell me if that's true?

I feel like crap even posting this. No things aren't perfect and I don't want to believe this.
There's just a rising tide of strangeness and bells are starting to go off.

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Repo companies use a gps tracker thats small and holds on the car with a magnet. Its easy to stick on anywhere. Accurate to about 30 feet. Search for gps tracking or repo tracking devices to see what they look like.

hopefulerotic said:

Repo companies use a gps tracker thats small and holds on the car with a magnet. Its easy to stick on anywhere. Accurate to about 30 feet. Search for gps tracking or repo tracking devices to see what they look like.

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Sorry you are going through this.

Your post touches my heart. I feel for you and it saddens me to think about it.

I don't know how to find a tracking device, but I can be pretty manipulative. If it were me, I would drive to somewhere and stay there long enough and enough times to raise his suspicions and hopefully get him asking questions. In other words, I would bait him. It's not foolproof, I know, but to better your chances, I would not hesitate to put a tracking device on his car and see if he goes where you've been.

Go park outside a beauty shop at the most suspicious times of the day several times a week. He has no reason to drive to a beauty shop.

I know it sounds devious, but I'll be the first to admit. I'm devious, and I never hesitate to fight fire with fire.

hopefulerotic said:

Repo companies use a gps tracker thats small and holds on the car with a magnet. Its easy to stick on anywhere. Accurate to about 30 feet. Search for gps tracking or repo tracking devices to see what they look like.

Click to expand...

Nearly as I can tell from looking online they come in all shapes and sizes. Can be wired into the car's electrical system too so they don't need any sort of battery (he would know how to do that.)

In all honesty it pisses me off as much that I'm even thinking this as the fact that it might be true.

littlecordelera
As for being devious--I could probably give you a run for your money. Baiting him might be bad though.
A few times I've made a point of saying I was one place when I was somewhere else just to see what the reaction was. At least a couple of those times the reaction has been him spending time on his computer that evening.
That isn't a big deal, doesn't prove anything and could be a coincidence or maybe I just noticed his computer time because I was watching for it.
Or not.


Does anyone know if that carwash thing is really true (that it's bad for the paint on a new car) or if it might be related to this?

NotHisLady said:

Nearly as I can tell from looking online they come in all shapes and sizes. Can be wired into the car's electrical system too so they don't need any sort of battery (he would know how to do that.)

In all honesty it pisses me off as much that I'm even thinking this as the fact that it might be true.

littlecordelera
As for being devious--I could probably give you a run for your money. Baiting him might be bad though.
A few times I've made a point of saying I was one place when I was somewhere else just to see what the reaction was. At least a couple of those times the reaction has been him spending time on his computer that evening.
That isn't a big deal, doesn't prove anything and could be a coincidence or maybe I just noticed his computer time because I was watching for it.
Or not.


Does anyone know if that carwash thing is really true (that it's bad for the paint on a new car) or if it might be related to this?

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Yea if he knows car wiring then it could be powered anywhere. He could operate the tracker from any computer maybe even a smart phone. I dont blame you id be pissed to have to think about this as well.

I'm rather taken aback that someone would be so possessive and paranoid they'd feel inclined to install some sort of monitoring device. Could just as easily be a camera I suppose. But it does seem very odd he'd make a song and a dance about polishing your car. How long did he spend cleaning it and were you there when he did it?

As for the paintwork. We never use car washes because they can leave tiny scratches. So we ensure all our clients cars are hand washed. But that's the only reason. Nothing a bit of mopping won't fetch off if does scratch the paint.

littlecordelera said:

Your post touches my heart. I feel for you and it saddens me to think about it.

I don't know how to find a tracking device, but I can be pretty manipulative. If it were me, I would drive to somewhere and stay there long enough and enough times to raise his suspicions and hopefully get him asking questions. In other words, I would bait him. It's not foolproof, I know, but to better your chances, I would not hesitate to put a tracking device on his car and see if he goes where you've been.

Go park outside a beauty shop at the most suspicious times of the day several times a week. He has no reason to drive to a beauty shop.

I know it sounds devious, but I'll be the first to admit. I'm devious, and I never hesitate to fight fire with fire.

Click to expand...

I like this.

In your shoes, I'd be tempted to find some way to both mess with his mind and possibly subtly let him know I'm not an idiot. I'd first find out if there is a tracker on the car (to avoid being the idiot if there isn't) and figure out what fun I could have from there.

Drive to his work on random days, dropping the tracker off in a hidden spot so it's there most (but not all) of his work day. Can you imagine him wondering why his wife is stalking him at work? According to the tracker, it looks that way to him. And if he's having an affair himself, imagine how paranoid he'd get wondering why you're suddenly seeming to watch him. Yet, he can't ask... because how would he know?

Better yet, find a friend who's going out of town leaving after he's at work. Friend willingly takes tracker with him/her and you take a long shopping trip when hubby is due home... long enough for him to panic about why the tracker is telling him his wife is driving further and further away out of state... and wait for him to call. If no call, come back a couple hours later with things from your shopping trip as if completely innocent. Wait for it to dawn on him that the only possibility is that you found the tracker.

Be aware, though... if he's willing to put a tracker on your car, he might go the HIGHLY ILLEGAL route of putting an app on your phone that can both track the phone and give him access to texts, call data, etc. Computer, too.

Not a good situation. I'm sorry to hear about it. As much as it'd be my temptation to throw my hands up and say, "fuck it... you crossed that line... it's open season on mind games because you're asking for them" while quietly preparing for the inevitable melt down...

...well, the reality is it's not that simple. It's messy. It's painful.

Take your car through the car wash, anyway.

"Oops. Sorry."

Hell, I'd take it through the car wash everyday.

NotHisLady said:

if there's one on my car, is there a 'best' place to look or a sure fire way to know?

Click to expand...

No.

Now I've been told that it's bad for the paint to use any sort of automated car wash or go to the places where you pay them to do it.
Maybe someone could tell me if that's true?

Click to expand...

It's not true, but it's such a common, widespread urban legend that it's quite reasonable to assume that most guys will assume it is a "Yes".

Anyway, all places where you would attach a tracking device would not be affected at all by a car wash.


It would make more sense to check/monitor which websites he visits.

Doog_kuron said:

I'm rather taken aback that someone would be so possessive and paranoid they'd feel inclined to install some sort of monitoring device. Could just as easily be a camera I suppose. But it does seem very odd he'd make a song and a dance about polishing your car. How long did he spend cleaning it and were you there when he did it?

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Possessive isn't new, it's really more or less SOP. Over the last year or so I've been showing this rather annoying independent streak--you know wanting to take myself places and things like that.

I work Saturdays. The first one after I got my new car I got a ride to work with someone so he could 'detail' it for me then pick me up after work for dinner out.
That means an entire day and I wasn't around at all.

I'm sorry that there's nothing I can say to help, except to say that it sounds like your red flag is waving and there's no doubt a darn good reason for that. Could you perhaps check his browser history? The thing that alarms me is if he's the type to do such a thing, it's taking possessiveness and mistrust to an obsessive level. I would wonder if he could get violent? Tread carefully and stay safe.

Take your car to a new or used car dealership and explain to the manager what your situation is and asked if they could show you where it might be. Most dealerships these days install them to protect them from the theft of the car or from a purchaser that just stops paying. They know what they look like and where the most likely spots to install it would be. The firm I work for had a client do that and the car dealership people were happy to help. They found it in about 10 minutes.

Places you can do a quick look yourself with a flashlight are up in the wheel wells, up under the bumpers--look for a magnet. Might just be a spare key, might not.Or inside, look under the rugs, seats, in the pockets on the sides of the doors (if you have them), and for any new slits in the seats. In my case, it was on the outside of the car.

If turns out he is doing that, I would also sweep your computer for key logger programs.

Another small bit of advice if you should choose to take it, and if not, all good. Don't antagonize him by purposefully leaving stuff for him to find, or deliberately bating him. It makes a really bad situation much worse, and you can get much, much more than you bargained for in retaliation. I learned that the hard way.

sorry to hear your situation....
basically as you have found out a GPS tracker can be mounted anywhere, and without saying things that may seem like overkill there's a few other things to consider....
a tracker can be battery operated, i used one for logging routes i'd driven to match up photos i'd taken - when my daughter passed her driving test i thought about dropping it into the car - as she was on a 'deal' to only drive to school ( never did) but realistically such a GPS could be hidden anywhere even popped in a bag.

as someone said above, trackers can be put onto phones, the phone has to have the 'app' loaded onto it, can't be done remotely - but if someone gets their hands on a phone for a few minutes, thats all it takes

location can also be found from logging in /commenting on some social sites

and of course history can be found on a pc unless its properly wiped, and there are a faior few unscrupulous 'spying' type programs that can be loaded onto a pc to record keystrokes and to allow someone to pick up activity remotely.

as for car wash - i'd say it used to be a common held belief that auto car washes were not good for the cars paintwork, i think nowadays most folks dont give that a 2nd thought.

by the sounds of it you need to find a way to force the issue for your own peace of mind. i'm not sure how one does that. It depends on why he'd be tracking you and what he wants from that knowledge.....perhaps just leaving the car somewhere would not bring a reaction, depends i guess on the agenda. Thinking about it, i'd bet that there are jammers available. If you just want to leave your doubts to fester or can't figure a way to bring it to a head - maybe do a google search and buy one?

You could be tracked via your phone.

Depending on how long he had access to your car, a device could be stashed inside door panels or any place like that where it's not easy to find them. Lo-jack puts trackers in places that aren't easy to find and ditch. Those "magnet" things are for amateurs.

The only sure fire way is to hire somebody like a private detective or someone with the electronic equipment to see if there are any emmiters that are active. However, even "Onstar" that's in GM cars or a company installed GPS system could probably be used to track a car if necessary. Hell, I think even more modern cell phones with GPS can be turned around by the police (or probably others that know how) to use them as trackers.

We're finally living in a Big Brother world. Want to keep tabs on a spouse? Trackers, phone recorders, key logger software, mini cameras and recorders in pens and glasses, all probably available from some "spy" store in any major city, or online. If you're really trying to ditch your hubby tracking you, rent or borrow somebody elses car when you travel where you don't want him to find you.

If he had the password, the 'Find my phone' feature on an iPhone could track a person.

It's less about 'ditching' someone than just seeing where we are on the 'weird crap' meter. If things have gotten as far as this then it means a sudden shift. That isn't good--or safe.

On the other hand I can't discount the possibility that because things are getting strange that I'm over reacting.

If there were a way to just know--I'd probably leave the thing where it is just to keep from moving to something else (the devil you know if you see what I mean) but if I could just KNOW.

#1 - the auto car washes can scratch the paint on your car. They don't change the brushes / rags after each car and that crap builds up and leaves scratches and swirls. Go to a hand wash place to keep it in shape.

#2 - tracking devices can be anywhere. They are small and can track to a home computer or elsewhere. Usually there needs to be an antenna, but they can be placed somewhere not so obvious. Your dealership might be able to find one if you take it in for service and ask. Also remember that cellphones can be tracked. The iPhone has a feature to help you find it... But some people, if they know your password, can track you with it too.

Some trackers are satellite or cellular, some have a memory card that can be pulled and read on a computer. They start at about $20 on eBay.

Look for an iPhone. That's a tracking device.

NotHisLady said:

if there's one on my car, is there a 'best' place to look or a sure fire way to know?

I don't know that he has or would do that but...

Before anyone suggests asking, that's not an option. If it's true he'll lie, if it isn't then I've made a mess that I may not be able to clean up.


Most of you know that I'm not living in Camelot even though I tried for a long time to pretend I am.
We've gone from me being asked not so subtle questions about where I've been or how long I stayed at different places to no questions at all sort of abruptly.

I got a new car and he was very keen to wash and wax it for me--once.
Now I've been told that it's bad for the paint to use any sort of automated car wash or go to the places where you pay them to do it.
Maybe someone could tell me if that's true?

I feel like crap even posting this. No things aren't perfect and I don't want to believe this.
There's just a rising tide of strangeness and bells are starting to go off.

Click to expand...

NotHisLady said:

if there's one on my car, is there a 'best' place to look or a sure fire way to know?

I don't know that he has or would do that but...

Before anyone suggests asking, that's not an option. If it's true he'll lie, if it isn't then I've made a mess that I may not be able to clean up.


Most of you know that I'm not living in Camelot even though I tried for a long time to pretend I am.
We've gone from me being asked not so subtle questions about where I've been or how long I stayed at different places to no questions at all sort of abruptly.

I got a new car and he was very keen to wash and wax it for me--once.
Now I've been told that it's bad for the paint to use any sort of automated car wash or go to the places where you pay them to do it.
Maybe someone could tell me if that's true?

I feel like crap even posting this. No things aren't perfect and I don't want to believe this.
There's just a rising tide of strangeness and bells are starting to go off.

Click to expand...

I've nothing to add about device locations and car washings. I only want to say to you that this does not sound like a healthy place to be, and not a way anyone should be living.

Your "spidey" senses are already tingling... trust your gut.

If you are noticing an escalation in these types of behaviours, get out.

Trade the car in for one exactly like it.

I almost bought an old copy of spy vs spy the other day, but it was in poor condition so I passed.

Here's a way to check. Get a friend to swap cars with you and counter-surveil him as he heads towards some likely location to follow you.

Another option would be to put a gps tracker on him and see if he follows.

Let's just say for arguments that your fella, lets call him Mr Nuts for lack of a name, genuinely wanted to detail your car? (Actually did he do a good job?) It strikes me in all my ignorance, that tracking devices are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Do you love him? Trust him? Do you want to be with him? Does he make you happy? These are more the sort of questions I would be interested to learn the answers too. Still, I am just a lowly giraffe, what do I know?

http://www.alljammer.com/mini-gps-jammer-for-car-p-139.html
Look at getting something like this and see how he reaction its when it drops off the map to say signal lost its not suspicions as vehicles lose gps lock all the time.small enough for you to hide when your not in the car as well don't know about the laws in the USA but in the UK its legal.

Tell him your going out drive for a short time then plug it in see if you get a phone call

Tracking systems have various options depending on the make and model and fitting places
if its not hard wired your looking for somthing bit smaller then a mobile phone boot carpet, under rear seats, under the front seats behind glove box, front/rear bumper (behind them),wheel arches. If its a new car look for signs of trim removed ie scratches in the screws, flexed plastics (where you get the white mark from someone pulling at it)

If you still can't see anything try looking in a dark garage some of them have leds to show battery life. RF scanner will pick up a signal as well or probably the easyist option take it to a garage who fit trackers and alarms and get them to look it