Ossining Man Charged With Stalking After Allegedly Putting GPS On Ex's Car

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – New York State Police have arrested an Orange County man for allegedly using a GPS device to stalk his ex-girlfriend.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported, it started when a woman took her BMW in for service.

"During the inspection of the vehicle the mechanic found what appeared to be a GPS or global positioning device installed on her vehicle," said New York State Police Lt. Michael Drake.

The 'Sky Patrol' tracker sells for around $300.

State police say the woman's ex-boyfriend Kenneth Martin of Westchester County hid the tracker on her car, allowing him to follow the BMW's every move on a smartphone for two months.

"You can really pinpoint someone's exact location," Lt. Drake said.

The woman contacted state police who accompanied her to a garage to remove the tracker.

"She was peeved. She was really upset that somebody could actually trace where she was going," garage owner Bob Jennings said.

Remarkably, it wasn't illegal to hide a GPS tracker on someone's car in New York until recently.

The stalking law was amended in October to include 'electronic following' after a study showed 1 in 4 stalking cases nationwide involved some type of tracking technology.

The case against Martin is one of the first under the new provision, and with GPS trackers popular and cheap, cops suspect it won't be the last.