BURRILLVILLE – A man who kept tabs on his ex-girlfriend for months via a GPS tracking system installed in her vehicle was charged for the offense by Burrillville police on Friday, July 9.
Steven Scarpelli, 33, of North Smithfield, is facing a misdemeanor charge of electronic tracking of motor vehicles after his ex, a 45-year-old Harrisville woman, brought the device to police.
According to the arrest report, the victim told police she believed Scarpelli had installed the device and was told to have an auto body shop locate the tracker.
“While having this done, the auto body shop received a call from Mr. Scarpelli,” who otherwise did not know where the victim was, the report notes. “He threatened the shop not to remove the tracker from the vehicle.”
Police reportedly sent an administrative subpoena to parent company MyCar and confirmed the tracker had been activated by Scarpelli in November of last year. According to police, the company provided roughly 600 pages of data showing thousands of inquiries into the location of the victim’s vehicle.
Officers obtained a recorded confession from Scarpelli and he was issued a summons to appear in 6th District Court on Tuesday, Aug. 3. At the appearance, Scarpelli was released with a $1,000 person recognizance and a no contact order with the victim.
The Rhode Island Criminal database shows that the suspect’s past charges include violation of a no contact order, domestic vandalism, domestic assault, refusal to relinquish a telephone and domestic violence.
