Found A Tracker On Your Car? DON'T Toss it!

Verified Credentials

Reggie & Njeri London
Co-Founding Partners

Texas Bar verified. Reggie London (Texas Bar No. 24043514) and Njeri London (Texas Bar No. 24043266) are the co-founding partners of L and L Law Group, PLLC — based at 5899 Preston Rd, Suite 101 in Frisco, Texas (Collin County), with many 5-star Google reviews, and available 24/7 for criminal defense consultations.

Why You Should Not Toss It

A tracker is a physical object with a serial number, a battery, often a SIM card, and an account it reports to. Investigators can sometimes trace it to the person who bought or activated it. Drop it in a dumpster and that trail ends with you.

The device also proves that someone was tracking you at all. Stalking cases are hard to bring because the conduct is usually invisible to anyone but the victim; a tracker, photographed where you found it, is the proof those cases rarely have. If police placed it, its existence is what lets a defense lawyer demand the warrant.

And if you destroy something you already suspect is evidence, the person who placed it, or a prosecutor, can turn that around on you. Keeping the device costs you nothing. Destroying it can cost you a case.

What to Do in the First Hour

1. Do not touch it yet. Photograph it exactly where it sits, from several angles, with enough of the car in frame to show the location. Then take a short video that starts with the whole car and moves in to the device, saying the date, time, and place as you record.
2. Photograph every label, logo, or number on the device without opening it or removing a battery.
3. Write down the date and time you found it, where the car was parked, and who has had access to it.
4. If a phone alert led you to it, screenshot the alert before you tap anything. It usually shows when the device started moving with you and often the tag's serial number.
5. Decide whether to leave it or remove it. If you are afraid of the person who placed it, leave it and call police from somewhere other than your home. If you remove it, seal it in a bag, note the time, and keep it somewhere safe.
6. Back up the photos, video, and notes to a second place the same day.

If an Ex, a Stalker, or Someone You Know Placed It

Texas Penal Code § 16.06 makes it a crime to knowingly install an electronic or mechanical tracking device on a motor vehicle that someone else owns or leases. It is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $4,000. The statute has defenses, and the one that matters most in a breakup is consent: if the owner or lessee agreed to the device, the installation is not a crime.

A tracker is rarely the whole story. If the same person keeps showing up where you are, sends messages you did not ask for, or contacts your family or employer, that pattern may be stalking under Penal Code § 42.072, which is a felony, or harassment under § 42.07. The tracker is what makes the pattern provable. You can also ask a court for a protective order under Texas Family Code Chapter 85; violating one is a separate crime under Penal Code § 25.07.

What to do: make a police report. In Frisco that means the Frisco Police Department; elsewhere in Collin or Denton County, call the non-emergency line for the city where you found the device. Say it plainly: "I found a tracking device on my car. I did not consent to it. I want to report it under Penal Code 16.06." Give the officer your photos and notes, ask whether they want the device, and get the report number.

One caveat. If the car is titled in both names, or in the other person's name, the consent and ownership questions get complicated. Say so up front. Stalking and harassment do not depend on who owns the car.

If a Lender, Dealer, or Private Investigator Placed It

Some vehicle finance contracts, especially from buy-here-pay-here lots and subprime lenders, include your written consent to a GPS unit or starter-interrupt device. Before you assume a crime, read the paperwork you signed. If you agreed to the device, the installation is generally lawful, and how the lender may use it is a contract question rather than a criminal one. Rental and fleet vehicles belong to the company, so the company's consent is the consent that counts.

Private investigators are licensed in Texas, and § 16.06 gives a defense to a licensed investigator who installed the device with the written consent of the vehicle's owner or lessee, and to anyone assisting a peace officer acting in a criminal investigation or under a court order. An investigator who tracked you was working for someone, often a spouse in a divorce, an insurer, or an employer, so the tracker may already be evidence in a civil case about you. Talk to a lawyer before you contact the investigator or the person you think hired them.

If Law Enforcement Placed It

The U.S. Supreme Court held in United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012), that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements is a search under the Fourth Amendment. That normally means police need a warrant first. The Court reached a related conclusion in Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018): the government generally needs a warrant to get historical cell-site location records from your phone carrier.

You cannot reliably tell a police tracker from a private one by looking at it. Think about context instead. If officers have contacted you recently, someone you know was arrested, your home or business was searched, or you have any reason to believe you are under investigation, treat the device as a possible law-enforcement tracker and call a criminal defense lawyer before you call anyone else.

Do not remove it, and do not destroy it. A device the government placed is government property, and a person under investigation who tears off a tracker hands the prosecution an easy argument. Photograph it, leave it, and let your lawyer decide what happens next. A tracker placed under a valid warrant will surface in discovery; one placed without a warrant is the basis for a motion to suppress.

Police or Lawyer: Who to Call First

• Call 911 if you believe you are in immediate danger.
• Call the police non-emergency line and make a report if you think an ex or a stranger placed it, you have no open criminal case, and you did not consent.
• Call a lawyer first if you may be under investigation, have a pending case, are in a divorce or custody dispute, share title to the car with the person you suspect, or think a lender or investigator placed it. Anything you tell an officer can be used against you, and a lawyer can make the report with you if that is the right move.
• If you are both a stalking victim and a defendant in an unrelated case, call the lawyer first. The order matters.

How a Tracker Can Matter in Your Own Criminal Case

Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 38.23 says that evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution or laws of Texas or the United States shall not be admitted against the accused in a criminal trial. When the evidence raises the issue, the judge must also instruct the jury to disregard any evidence it believes was obtained illegally.

That rule is why a police tracker without a warrant is not a footnote. If the tracking is what led officers to the traffic stop, the meeting, or the search, then everything found there may be excluded along with the tracking data. Your lawyer will ask the State for the warrant, the supporting affidavit, and the tracking logs. If there is no warrant, the argument writes itself. If there is one, the question becomes whether the device was installed and monitored within the dates and terms the judge approved. Your photographs and notes let your lawyer compare the State's account with what actually happened.

The picture is different if you are the person accused of placing a tracker. Consent, shared ownership, and a licensed investigator's role are all defenses under § 16.06, and how the device was found and handled can decide the case. Say nothing to police about it until you have talked to a lawyer.

What Not to Do

• Do not throw it away, smash it, or attach it to someone else's vehicle.
• Do not confront the person you suspect, in person or by text.
• Do not post about it online. Anything you write can be used against you later.
• Do not dismiss a phone alert as a glitch. Screenshot it and go look at the car.

About the Authors

Njeri London

Co-Founding Partner

Texas Bar No. 24043266. Admitted: TXND, TXED, 5th Circuit. Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Focus: Fourth Amendment motion practice, drug-crime defense, federal cases. Verify on Texas Bar

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Reggie London

Co-Founding Partner

Texas Bar No. 24043514. Former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney. Extensive felony trial experience including DWI dockets. Verify on Texas Bar

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