My car was stolen yesterday and I know who took it. I was wondering if I could track them using their cell phone and the GPS built in to it. I could care less about the person, I just want my car back.
I mentioned it to the police and they brushed it off and didn’t really seem to care about the whole GPS thing when I filed the report. Probably need a court order sent to the cell company and all that, huh?
What would be involved for me to do it as a regular guy who wants his damn car back?
You can get a general area for a cell phone by identifying what tower it is closest to. I don’t think the technology is in use yet to pinpoint the location of a cell phone, though it certainly is possible.
I’m sure the police didn’t bother with the cell phone angle, because it’s unlikely that anyone who stole your car is going to be driving it around for personal transportation.
What time yesterday did you report it stolen?
If you know who stole it, couldn’t the cops just go to his house?
The girl who sole it is/was a friend of mine who is homeless. I bumped into her the other day after not seeing her for about 7 years and she told me she was staying at the homeless shelter. Well, I gave her my number, which I regret now, and she called saying she got kicked out of the shelter because someone stole her stuff and she got in a fight etc…
I said, you can stay with me this weekend and this weekend only ! Well, she asked to borrow the car to get cigs the other night and I haven’t heard from her since. She has a crack habit, a bad one. What’s weird is, all her things are still here, purse, wallet, everything. The hospitals have no accidents reported with her or my car, neither do police.
She just vanished into thin air. Gone. I had just put $1100 into that car and got it on the road a month ago.
I reported it around 10:30 am on Saturday morning.
Most cell phones these days have a GPS system inside. It’s used for enhanced 911, so emergency call centers can track you down. Unfortunately, it’s blocked on just about every phone (with the exception of Nextel phones I think?), so unless she calls 911, I think you’re out of luck.
You’re going to need a helluva good cite for any of this! A couple of really new phones have GPS onboard, but you do realise that GPS receives rather than transmits, right?
Well no cite, but I thought this was pretty common knowleadge. In most cellphones you can set the gps info to ‘emergency only’ or ‘all calls’, the default is ‘emergency only’ on mine. I suggest you scroll through the options of your phone if you would like to see this.
Now I don’t know if there is a way to remotely force the phone into ‘all calls’ mode, but I suspect so.
Sorry man, but that isn’t GPS. I’m not sure what you are referring to. Possibly the GSM protocol? GPRS maybe?
You probably don’t have the muscle to track someone by their cell phone, but the police certainly do. It’s called a trap and trace device.. The police go before a magistrate and get a court order forcing the cell company to release that information. The information in question can include routing/cell tower information that can be used to locate the general location of the cell phone user. If the cell phone has GPS, that information can be incredibly precise. If it’s a non-GPS phone, the location information can vary in exactness, depending on the number of nearby cell towers.
There has been some contention in federal courts about whether the authority for a trap and trace device (orpen registers, which are similar) is available to the police. Title 47, Sec. 1002 of the U.S. Code says that information that may reveal the location of a cell phone subscriber cannot be released solely pursuant to the act allow pen registers. The government, ingeniously, says that the authority comes from combining the pen register statute (18 U.S.C. 3122) and the Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. 2703)(which allows the release of “transactional information.”) By using both sources, the government contends, the location information is no longer solely pursuant to the pen register statute.
If your car-thief is not a subscriber to the cell phone (and how could she? she’s homeless), then 47 U.S.C. 1002 doesn’t apply and the police can freely track her cell phone.
On a related note, this very issue is what we argued about in Moot Court the past few weeks, hence the chattiness.
Actually, I believe on at least some phones default to “send to all receivers”, thus they’re pumping the GPS data across on all calls. No one except for emergency services seems to use it, but I could see it being useful for, let’s say, a hotel chain’s directions line, etc. Seem to have read that on a FAQ on one of those in-depth cell phone technical forum places.
Oh yeah, and unless the stolen car is the kind that is eligible for inclusion in a museum exhibit, the cops in most places with populations >10,000 residents won’t investigate its theft. The best you could probably do is hope for her to get caught in a traffic stop; either that or you would have to observe the car, and tell the cops your stolen car is RIGHT THERE, come arrest the driver; even so you’d get a low-priority dispatch.
FYI, if you find the car, report it un-stolen before driving it. If you get pulled over driving a stolen car, the ensuing traffic stop is less fun than otherwise; one of my goals in life is to avoid ANYONE pointing a loaded gun at me.
uh, audiobottle is correct. Nextel is the only phone that routinely transmits it’s position right now, but virtually all phones in the US have the capability. It is required by the FTC. It is pretty common knowledge (at least I consider it so).
The police routinely use the capability to track stolen items. Last week a friend had her camera stolen-along with someone else’s cell phone. Once the police were faced with 2 thefts, they had the location traced. The guy was VERY surprised to be awakened at 7AM in his tent in a campground surrounded by police (for those who live in an environment where such things never happen in practice-this is a pretty rural environment and it was early in the morning, not much going on). All the police did was collect the stolen items and return them. The guy will get arrested if the police get the warrent filled out before he hits the road. BTW, the guy took his own picture with the camera, so there is pretty good evidence that he took it!
But yeah, the GPS fct on the phones do work and are used by the police.
I believe all phones can be forced on, but only NEXTEL allows the user of the phone to set it to broadcast the position.
Sorry, no real cite - I had thought it was common knowledge as well. The only reason I know about Nextel allowing users to access the GPS is because of this NPR article.
One of the July 21st failed tube bombers was traced from London to Italy using his mobile, and he had changed the SIM.
A few days ago I read about some muggers in London who killed their victim, and were traced because they stole and used his mobile.
How I stalked my Girlfriend. Doesn’t give the details, but seems as though it’s certainly possible. I wonder how long 25 GSM credits lasts.