Community reaction to secret GPS found by Ontario man

The GPS device discovered under Ferrill's truck was sold by a U.S. company. (CBC)The CBC Community had a lot to say about the story of man who found a hidden tracking device on his vehicle.

Ben Ferrill of Warsaw, Ont., told CBC's Go Public that he's angry and frightened after discovering that someone hid a GPS tracking device under his vehicle, presumably to secretly monitor his movements.

Community members posted more than 570 comments on the story by mid-afternoon Tuesday. The vast majority of readers were outraged by the story. Many wondered if Ferrill's former employer, Holiday Ford Lincoln, had a hand in placing the device.

• "Police should get a warrant to check if the dealership's financials to see if there is a private investigator on the recent payroll or to see if they purchased a recent unit from Kore [the Canadian company that provides the wireless connection]" - VanMan
• "Agreed. I would suggest that finding a GPS stuck to the bottom of your vehicle constitutes reasonable and probable grounds that you are being harassed and a warrant can be issued to the police so they can follow this up." - 1wabbit1
• "Given the ongoing dispute with his employer and the injury factor, a private investigator may very well have been hired to conduct surveillance in hopes of videotaping him carrying out activities contrary to what his injuries should allow. The old 'sit and wait outside the home for signs of movement' has been replaced by a black box." - aL Pine aL

Some defended the use of a tracking device, while others suggested the device might have been placed on the truck before his dispute with Holiday Ford.

• "Does not the dealership have a right to investigate claims against them? It may be shady but is there a law that has been broken, besides a vague mischief charge?" - advocate4devil
• "And why does Holiday Ford care about where he goes?" - Rgreene
• "There's also the possibility that it got put on the wrong vehicle in a truck stop parking lot. There are transport companies that, if they suspect a driver is going places they should not with their truck, or stopping where they should not be stopping, will place a device without their driver's knowledge." - Opinyun8ed

Several readers echoed the sentiments of Ferrill's lawyer Ian Wilson, who compared the surveillance of his client to the government's plans to allow police to monitor people's internet use without a warrant.

• "This is the automotive version of what Vic Toews and the Harper Government want to do to your internet privacy while claiming to protect children from internet pornographers..." - ausca
• "In a sense, we can say that Vic Toews wants to put a 'GPS' device on all our computers. Doesn't feel good, eh?" - Mark 138

Some readers submitted ideas for what Ferrill should have done with the GPS device when he had found it. The CBC Community team does not endorse any of these suggestions, by the way.

• "If this man were clever, he would have quietly removed the device from his vehicle and attached it instead to one belonging to the dealership's management or owner(s) and never said a word." - Suecacoa
• "They should put the little box on the bottom of a freight train headed for Mexico." - ArtBiddulph
• "Toss it in a sea container. Let them figure that out." - screaminguitar
• "I would've attached it to a nearby rail car, or an overseas container, let them take it for a spin across the country or a voyage! :)" - Tic Tock

Go Public's Kathy Tomlinson replied in the comments section to some reader inquiries, mostly about the laws surrounding private investigations and the history of Ferrill's vehicle.

"I am the reporter who wrote this story. The law requires that there has to be a warrant before private investigators (or police) place a device like this on a vehicle, when their client does not own the vehicle and does not have the owner's consent.

"Private investigators we talked to said the most frequent use of this type of device in their business is when they are covertly following a spouse (not their client) on behalf of another spouse (their client) - in a vehicle owned by the client spouse.

"The above rules apply if an insurance company hires a PI as well. In this case, though, Ferrill was not involved with an insurance company - just WSIB [Workplace Safety and Insurance Board]. Ferrill owns his vehicle and he didn't give anyone permission to put a GPS device on it. There was no warrant in this case.

"Ben Ferrill's vehicle is several years old and he owns it (it's not leased etc). Also, when he found the device he said his wheel well was covered in dirt but the device was clean and new - as if put there recently.

"Hope this helps."

Thanks, as always, to everyone for your feedback and discussion.

Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC TV, radio and the web. We tell your stories and hold the powers that be accountable. We want to hear from people across the country with stories they want to make public.

Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public