I think it's great this guy's off the streets, but it raises an important point. If you have a cel phone turn off the fucking gps function. Most of them allow you to set it to broadcast your location only when dialing "911". If your phone won't do that, get another phone.
You have to register to read this article and it's not worth that so here it is:
Quote:
GPS used to nab fugitive
RACHEL E. LEONARD, Staff Writer
Published January 5, 2007
Spartanburg County deputies are crediting global positioning system (GPS) technology with helping them find a West Virginia man wanted on a charge of failure to register as a sex offender.
Sheriff Chuck Wright said deputies were able to track Norman Rattliff Jr., 49, to a specific Spartanburg home using his cellular phone number through GPS technology, which uses a satellite-based navigation system to determine the location, speed and direction of GPS receivers such as phones, watches and cars.
Rattliff had been living at a home at 871 Damson Plum Court in Spartanburg for at least six months, Wright said.
Fraud investigation
Deputies went to question him Wednesday evening about fraud crimes they believe he committed and then discovered he was a fugitive from West Virginia, Wright said.
When officers arrived, Rattliff ran from the home into a residence where a woman and child were staying, the sheriff said.
The woman who answered the door told police that Rattliff had run out of the back of the home.
Wright said that's when Rattliff's cell phone came in handy, along with the services of a sheriff's deputy assigned to an Federal Bureau of Investigations joint task force -- who helped deputies track the phones using GPS, a satellite-based navigation system.
Knocking on doors
"The GPS locator on his cell phone told us about where he was, so we went and started knocking on doors," Wright said. "And we knocked on one door … and we went in the back bedroom and arrested him."
No one was injured during the arrest, Wright said, and his office is now using GPS technology more often to track down criminals.
Rattliff was booked into the Spartanburg County Detention Facility Thursday, awaiting extradition to West Virginia. Sheriff's deputies here also plan to charge him with fraud-related crimes.
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