How can I know the people following me just use multiple cars but not a GPS tracker?

Question

Dealing with a very toxic situation, I am listened/spied on by my neighbor and his friend and they follow me as soon as I leave my home, be it on foot or by car.

Is there a trick I can use to determine if they are just using multiple cars to follow me (doing it professionally like cops maybe) or if they have planted a GPS tracker, either permanently inside the car or just stuck underneath it?

I bought a RF detector like this one but this has been ineffective for various reasons:

• It is catching background RF noise.
• I am driving alone, so I can't sweep the car while driving.
• The tracker could send location either every 5 minutes or only on demand (via SMS). So this solution is not working.

I have caught them following me 3 times (by luck maybe), but I just wonder if they are trying to make me believe they follow me by car to make me stop looking inside the car for the tracker, if there is one.

I know for sure that I have been followed because if I rent a hotel room I spend the night awake because they prevent me from sleeping by renting the room next door and making small noises loud enough to awake me. So this costs me 50€ every time for nothing.

Or if they dare to show their faces in front of me.

Answer 1

The easiest way to check for GPS trackers:

1. take your car to a garage, have them put the car on a lift.
2. Inspect the underside, look for small rectangular boxes. An internet search gives you an idea of what to look for.

It's very unlikely a tracker will be inside the car, because its battery has to be charged every few weeks, and breaking into your car every two weeks is too likely to get noticed. So if they use one, it'll be underneath.

If they're following you, they'll only use the cars they own. Adding rentals is way over the top just for harrassment. So find out which cars they own, learn to recognize them and look for them.

Your daily routine is predictable. If you go to work every day, they don't need to follow you to guess where you are.

I suspect the best way to deal with this is to not let them get on your nerves. Ignore them.

If they start doing more than following you, that's the time to involve the police.

Answer 2

With all due respect,

There's no one following you at all.

There's no GPS. There's no 'professional multicar tracking system'. They're not in your cell phone, assuming you have one.

I know for sure that I have been followed because if I rent a hotel room I spend the night awake because they prevent me from sleeping by renting the room next door and making small noises loud enough to awake me...

You are helping "them" not me by doing that. And this is their strategy, to isolate me even more.

Unless you are legitimately a former spy (in which case you wouldn't be asking strangers on the open internet for how to sweep your own car for bugs), no one is playing these kind of gaslighting psy ops on you. Not family, not business acquaintances, and certainly not your neighbors or their friends. Angry neighbors or loan sharks might follow someone to yell at them or threaten them; they don't rent adjacent hotel rooms to keep their victims awake with low-volume chatter.

Your certainty that this is occurring in this manner just means that you are placing yourself and innocent members of the public at risk by not talking to a mental health worker and getting the medication that you very much need.

Don't spend any money hoisting your car; don't buy sweeping devices; don't tow your car across town; don't rent sets of hotel rooms to guard your flanks. Find someone in social services or psychology that you can talk to instead; there's even a Psychology Stack here where you can get advice about who to talk to. Some I've met are even be kind enough to take cash for sessions and keep minimal paperwork, if you're very concerned it could fall into the wrong hands or cause trouble. You deserve it, and good people like yourself should do what they can to protect those around them.

Answer 3

I can't think of many ways to prove there is no GPS on your car. But you can easily show that they are monitoring you in ways other than a GPS (Which doesn't imply there is no GPS, just that it's less likely), you can also prove that they have a GPS, but it may not tell you where it is on the car.

To prove that they are looking at you:

Take a taxi one morning. The taxi will be GPS-free.

If they are able to find you on the first morning, it's because they're looking at you leave your home and follow you from there. It doesn't prove there is no GPS but it proves they're monitoring you directly (not just via a GPS app)

To prove there is a GPS:

Find the GPS: Hoist your car up on a car lift, just go to the mechanic's shop and ask if they can lift it for you to look. If you find one, then you can remove it. But remember that if you don't find it it's still not certain that there is nothing... you may simply have not found it.

If you don't find the GPS and are still fairly sure that there is one, here's how you can prove they have a GPS: Have your car towed somewhere, maybe to the other end of the city, and ask a friend to check if specific cars (of the people spying on you) turn up. If they were only following you visually, they wouldn't follow a tow truck but if they were relying on a GPS then they would go have a look at the (empty) car.

Whichever way you choose to go, definitely contact the police about this, and perhaps a psychologist to help you deal with the stress and trauma this is causing you.

Answer 4

I propose that you work with someone to double your resources and disorient anyone else who might be interested in causing you to be unhappy.

Keeping you isolated is something they want. Working with a professional will throw them off-course and make their continued espionage impossible.

I have visited a building where medical professionals have their offices and while in various waiting rooms I've noticed that there has been special equipment installed. Since then, I've noticed the same types of things in other similar medical office buildings. Things like white-noise generators are common to prevent eaves-dropping or listening in. The places are private so anyone who doesn't have an appointment for meeting their doctor is obvious. The buildings are heavy and well-made to prevent snooping. All the doors are secure. Medical professionals are well-trained in both privacy and security issues. Lastly, Each medical professional is a member of their professional order AND city, district, and federal governments (a trust issue). Lastly, they're smart, intelligent, and with more resources than you alone have. You can discreetly pick and choose your team member.

Teamwork!