A man in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was arrested for allegedly following his ex-girlfriend after wiretapping her vehicle with a tracking device that local news reports said had been paid to use her debit card.
After briefly dating between December 2020 and January 2021, 46-year-old Matthew McDonald reportedly contacted the victim repeatedly, according to Fox8. He apparently wrote to her from various phone numbers that he was aware of her location and would drive around her place of work, she told police.
The woman eventually discovered a small GPS device in her car, Fox8 reported. She also found out that her debit and unemployment cards were used to make a recurring payment of $ 40 on Amazon without her permission. The amount billed to the victim was estimated at $ 600.
SpyTec, the company that makes the device and provides its owner with real-time location, said the item belongs to McDonald, who allegedly used the woman’s debit card to make payments, according to Fox8.
McDonald allegedly named the victim a “snitch” in a message after police removed the tracking device from their car. He is currently in the Blair County Jail awaiting his preliminary hearing on May 5th.
Police found that the GPS tracker was the same one McDonald had used in a previous stalking incident for which he was jailed.
In 2019, McDonald was arrested on similar charges, the Altoona Mirror reported at the time.
He pleaded guilty to several crimes, including stalking, theft and nightly frolicking after another ex-girlfriend reported similar behavior to police, according to Altoona Mirror court documents.
McDonald subjected the victim, a woman he dated until October 2018, to a harassment campaign until November 2019 when she discovered a tracking device on her car that still matches the Altoona mirror.
The newspaper said police identified the device as a Spytec STI GL300. He followed the woman’s movements for eight months.
McDonald has been accused of broadcasting his previous victim texts which indicate he knew her whereabouts, as well as that of a man he believed was romantically involved. He also sent her derogatory messages and comments on her lifestyle from November 2018 to November 2019.
Police said McDonald destroyed the victim’s car multiple times, smashed its glass components, spray-painted the vehicle, slashed all four tires, cut the serpentine belt and stole her license plate three times, the Altoona Mirror reported. It was only when she saw holes in her car radiator that she saw the tracking device attached to the bumper.
Police found that the GPS tracker was the same one the man allegedly used in a stalking incident for which he was jailed in 2019.
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