MILWAUKEE-Connie Adams found it impossible to escape from her ex-boyfriend.
He would follow her while she drove to work or ran errands. He inexplicably stopped next to her at traffic lights and once tried to run her off the road, authorities said.
When he appeared on a date at a bar she was visiting for the first time, Adams began to suspect that Paul Seidler was not acting on instinct alone.
It wasn’t. Seidler had installed a satellite tracking device on Adams’ car, according to police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 30 miles south of Milwaukee.
“He told me that no matter where I went or what I did, he would know where I was,” Adams testified at a recent court hearing.
Police say Adams’ case and several others across the country portend an emerging danger: high-tech stalking.
Just as the global satellite positioning system can help save lives, its abuse can also endanger them, advocates for victims of harassment say.
“As technology advances, it will be nearly impossible for victims to flee to safety,” said Cindy Southworth, chief technology officer at the National Network to End Domestic Violence in Washington.
In the Adams case, Seidler pleaded not guilty last month to felony counts of stalking, recklessly endangering safety, theft and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. His trial is pending.
Adams does not want to talk to reporters about the case, said Kenosha County Prosecutor Susan Karaskiewicz.
Police say Seidler placed a global positioning tracking device between the radiator and grill of Adams’ car. These devices use a constellation of Department of Defense satellites to pinpoint location and, using cellular networks, can send their coordinates to wireless phones or computers.
Transportation companies use GPS systems to track dangerous loads and monitor drivers. Prison authorities use them to monitor sex offenders. Hikers, boaters and motorists use GPS devices to avoid getting lost. GPS technology is also being incorporated into cell phones to help emergency operators find people who call 911. They are also used to prevent car theft.
Southworth trains victim advocates, law enforcement officials and prosecutors on stalkers’ use of technology, which she says is just beginning to be abused.
The National Center for Victims of Crime’s Stalking Resource Center has found at least one other case of a GPS system being used to stalk a victim.
