Saskatoon police say they imagine they haven’t discovered the entire GPS trackers a person is believed to have planted on automobiles within the metropolis.
Saskatoon police say Marty Schira, 46, is in custody and dealing with 36 costs: a number of every of harassment, intimidation, mischief, fraudulent use of a pc system and fraudulent concealment of a pc system. Police say every tracker positioned ends in a minimum of a further 5 costs.
Police say that in every of the seven instances of trackers found on automobiles to date, the gadgets have been discovered beneath the automobile, contained in the rear fender wall, close to the tire.
Police imagine there are a minimum of 10 extra trackers nonetheless on the market, although the quantity might be greater.
“We don’t know,” Employees Sgt. Brett Maki stated when requested what number of.
“That’s why we’re trying to enlist the public’s help in trying to recover these before they all die, the chargers lose their energy from the batteries. We’d like to recover as many as we can.”
The trackers are put in with magnets, wrapped in black tape and can look misplaced, Maki stated. If individuals are undecided the place to look, Maki advised taking their automobile to a mechanic.
The investigation started on Sept. 6, 2024, after a citizen reported having discovered two GPS trackers on his automobile.
It led officers to go looking an condominium within the 2000 block of twentieth Road West, the place officers discovered extra trackers.
Some victims unknown to Schira: police
Maki stated the trackers are owned by a subscription-based firm and that’s how officers realized there are extra trackers allegedly beneath Schira’s identify.
Maki stated Schira is aware of a number of the individuals who have been being tracked, however not others.
He added that comparable points with individuals’s areas being tracked have been reported earlier than, however to not this extent.
Maki stated it’s not unlawful to personal such trackers, however that Schira is alleged to have been utilizing them unlawfully.
Couple uncover trackers on truck
When Daelyn Boettcher discovered taped gadgets planted within the rear finish of his truck, he stated he knew what they have been “right away.”
Boettcher stated he had been engaged on the truck’s brakes when he noticed the tools on the nook of his eye.
“My first reaction was I thought somebody was trying to steal my truck,” he stated.
Boettcher stated police hinted the gadgets had doubtless been connected to the automobile for a number of months.
“He knows everything there is to know about us.”
His girlfriend, Mackenzie Hanson, stated they reported the trackers to police after figuring out neither of them had planted the gadgets.
Hanson later realized Schira was alleged to have planted the trackers. She searched his identify and realized Schira had beforehand been convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping.
“I felt super uncomfortable and uneasy,” Hanson stated.
“I don’t go anywhere alone anymore, pretty much, and I just watch over my shoulder a lot more.”
Schira’s earlier convictions
In Could 2004, Schira pleaded responsible in a Calgary provincial courtroom to sexual assault and kidnapping.
In keeping with an agreed assertion of details, Schira kidnapped a girl at gunpoint as she was strolling in her hometown of Rosetown, Sask., in June 2003.
Court docket paperwork say Schira drove her to Calgary, sexually assaulting her each in his automobile on the best way to the town and inside his condominium.
He was initially sentenced to 14 years in jail. Nevertheless, later that 12 months, the Alberta Court docket of Attraction diminished his sentence to 13 years.
In keeping with paperwork from the Parole Board of Canada in 2017, Schira stabbed a correctional officer with a protractor in June 2013, leading to two years being added to his sentence.
The doc quotes Schira’s case administration staff, saying he has made little progress addressing his offending behaviour, together with violence, sexual deviancy and psychological well being deficiencies.
The parole board stated on the time that if Schira was launched he was prone to reoffend, inflicting critical hurt to a different individual, earlier than the top of his sentence.
A psychological threat evaluation accomplished in December 2016 stated Schira offered options of varied schizophrenia spectrum issues.
GPS tracker know-how has professionals, cons
College of Manitoba laptop science professor David Gerhard stated there are each useful and nefarious makes use of for trackers. He gave examples like individuals utilizing trackers to comply with their automobiles or possessions in case of theft, or for security if they’re climbing within the backwoods, as positives.
“But, of course, if you take one of these little boxes and put it on somebody else’s vehicle instead of your own vehicle, then you can know their location without their consent,” he stated.
“And that’s a bad thing.”
Gerhard stated that with some trackers that use mobile networks, like Apple Airtags, individuals with Apple telephones or sure apps may be notified if a tracker is close by and shifting after they do.
Different trackers that use satellite tv for pc alerts would not have comparable notification types, he stated.
