Is it theft to remove a GPS tracking device?

YouTube if full of videos from lawyers saying exactly the same thing. And they also stress that your refusal to talk to them is not "probable cause" for the cops to search your car, for example.

Phil

Will this thread ever die?

Same couple of members saying the same thing over and over and over again.

This is old news already, going no where!

This case has gotten massive coverage. It exposes egregious misbehaving on the part of the police and up to and including the Indiana Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court had to weigh in and exert their power to protect the rights of an individual. As the Supreme Court said, the defendant may be getting away with some crime, but that is nothing compared to having legal rights violated and deprived of legal rights, violated and deprived by the system that is supposed to protect the citizens. The ISC clearly stated they were not going let that happen. This case is all about terrible, corrupt, incompetent players in the law enforcement and judicial systems. It needs more and more exposure.

Are you in law enforcement? DA office?

Suppose you found a tracking device on your car. What would you do? If the device is placed due to a warrant, does law enforcement notify you that a tracking device is on your car? For me, the device would be removed. If it were put on by law enforcement and I was notified, then I would contact a lawyer and have the legal entity provide a valid reason. Regardless, it would come off my car and be placed in my yard so that it would appear that I was always at home. Hey, it fell off my car!

It would be destroyed like the bugs on the windshield. But since we are not Drug Dealers or terrorist's it's highly unlikely to happen, also its highly unlikely we would be checking for bugs or GPS's.

I would want to find out who was attempting to track my car. In this case, the GPS was unmarked so who put the GPS on the car was not evident. Of course, police would be the probable explanation. The operator/user/customer of the GPS would have to make themselves known to me on their terms since the device was unmarked.

If the device was placed as a result of a warrant, I do not think notifying the owner of the car is required or productive. Think about it... notifying the owner of the car that a tracking device was installed defeats the purpose of the tracker. This is also why these GPS tracking devices are not marked or identified as being used for police surveillance. Furthermore, I would make sure that the car never moves with the tracker, because everything collected can and will be used against me.

Which makes me wonder what conclusive evidence can be collected by a GPS tracker when trying to build a case of drug trafficking? Which is why I would never move a car attached to a tracker. Driving by the addresses of suspects known to the police could be construed as incriminating and probable cause even if the owner of the surveilled car didn't know any of these people.

In this case, the device was not marked or identifiable. The Supreme Court said it was okay for the owner of the car to remove it. Think about it... if the charge of theft for removing the GPS was legit, then all car owners are obligated to leave any unmarked and unidentified device that gets attached to their cars. The court called that illogical. Anybody can then attach an unmarked device to your car and you would be subject to charges if you removed it, implicitly obligating you to leave it attached. I could then see Google, Amazon, insurance companies and police departments going wild attaching GPS devices to cars to collect all sorts of data. And the car owners would be obligated to leave those devices on their cars. That's wrong.

What would I do with the unidentified GPS tracker I found on my car? Not sure. The suggestions here so far have been cliché. But here are a few:

1. I'd call the FBI/SWAT bomb squad and report a threatening looking device attached to my car.

2. I'd wait until trash collection/recycle collection day in some neighborhood away from my residence, remove the GPS tracker from my car while at some inconspicuous location a couple days in advance and wrap it in thick foil so it can not communicate, transport it to that neighborhood with pending trash/recycle collection, select a location, such as a church, unwrap the GPS tracker and put it in the trash/recycle bin of that location. That location will be carefully chosen for the maximum entertainment value.

3. Find an incinerator.

4. Travel a very busy highway that has plenty of heavy truck traffic and detach my car from the device.

5. Find a bear den.

6. Visit a farm, such as a dairy or pig farm, that has a large collection of fresh, natural, organic fertilizer, and then deposit the GPS tracker in that fertilizer. Technique similar to #2 above.

If it is state or government owned and used in law enforcement. Then yes. Treat it like a boot on your car tire, even though you can cut it off its still destruction of property.

All I know is they would have a difficult time trying to put one on my vehicle. It's an aluminum body so magnets don't stick.

From the looks of this case, you can be charged with interfering with an investigation, obstruction of justice, whatever else they can make up, etc.

LOL!!! Better stay out of Indiana.

If they place it secretly and do not serve warrant on Owner then a Reasonable, Prudent Person would assume it was tampering with his or her Private Property have no obligation to determine the owner. A Traffic Boot Cleary states reason and Justification a hidden GPS is placed at Risk by PD. I have no Problem with them doing it legally but they take their chances if they don't serve the Warrant. For example, Ignition Breathalyzer install, after DUI is not mandatory but would result in License Revocation if you do not comply.

Read the Indiana Supreme Court Decision, as a minimum. Most if not all of the questions brought up here are addressed in the Decision. There is some very interesting discussion and references to Constitutional compliance.

Read the decision and you'll see that most of the discussion here is moot because of all the malfeasance and incompetence of the LEOs, magistrates, Appeals Court and police chain of command. The Supreme Court doesn't hold back and slaps a couple people around. In that respect, it is quite entertaining.

The question of removing something from your car was answered and this case became all about defective law enforcement.

Go back to the OP and the links to the Indiana Supreme Court Decision are in the link the OP provided.