This recently revived thread about constitutional privacy issues involves the case of police secretly installing a GPS tracker on a suspect’s car. Like many people in that thread, what concerns me most about the case is not the concern over privacy, but about the security of personal property. Many people asked why the police were allowed to install equipment on someone’s car without a warrant, regardless of the nature and purpose of said equipment. The court didn’t address that issue in their ruling, though, and so there was never a clear answer in the thread.
This is a more general question, though. What can I, as a private citizen, do to your car?
It’s not uncommon for people to put flyers on car windshields in public parking lots, which involves lifting up the wiper to secure the paper. Is this legal? Has a court ever ruled on it?
What about a sticker? Could I get a bunch of non-damaging removable bumper stickers and attach them to every car in a parking lot? What about every car on my street?
Is there, in fact any law about disturbing someone’s property in a non-damaging way? Could I pick up someone’s purse from a table at a restaurant, as long as I made it clear I didn’t plan on stealing it? Some of this happens every day. A waiter moves someone’s jacket or hat with barely a request, a car illegally parked is towed away, but are there legal limits?