Man accused of placing GPS device on victim's car before burglarizing her home
A burglary suspect currently on trial in Johnson County, Kansas allegedly put a GPS tracking device on a victim's car to determine whether anyone was home. The victim, an unnamed Overland Park woman, told her story to the Kansas City Star on Friday. Overland Park police, Leawood police, and Johnson County prosecutors declined to comment on the GPS allegation to the newspaper.
According to the Star, the suspect, Steven Alva Glaze, allegedly burglarized the woman's home on March 25. The victim owns a jewelry business in the Kansas City suburb. Glaze is now on trial for 14 counts of criminal damage to property, theft, attempted burglary, and burglary for the alleged crimes.
The use of GPS tracking devices surreptitiously installed on cars recalls the famous Jones v. United States case, in which the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2012 that law enforcement does not have the authority to warrantlessly place a device on a criminal suspect's vehicle. However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims still seems to be quite rare.
