Track a person's location by their cell phone number???

[doodadem]

The saga continues.

The divorce papers are ready to be served on the worthless excuse for a husband. Naturally, he is not responding to any messages left on his cell phone as to his whereabouts.

I've been trying to find a site online that can track the location of a cell phone number in real-time. Apparently you can do this by GPS, but he doesn't have GPS on his phone.

Does anyone have a company or website that can just ping his phone and tell me where he is? There's tons of info out there, but a lot of it looks like BS.

thanks

[ChoralScholar]

1. if he doesn't have GPS, the best anyone can do is triangulate a position

using towers he is bouncing off and signal levels - but that still leaves a pretty wide swath for him to be found in.

[doodadem]

2. Even that would be helpful

As right now, I have a good guess where he is, but need to know for sure.

[elleng]

3. Sorry for you!

Mine 'hiding' to avoid settlement/trial; owes me (and IRS, +) $.

[HopeHoops]

4. The cops can do it with little legal effort - HOWEVER....

The cell phone companies "claim" to only keep the data for 15 minutes. It is dirt simple to triangulate to within a few feet. It has nothing to do with GPS on the phone. They do it every ten seconds or so in order to be able to locate the phone to send out a ring tone when a call or message comes in. If the phone is turned off, they can't find you.

Getting the legal authority to "wire tap", if you will, to find the phone is simple. Using it in court is another matter. For criminal cases such as murder, rape, or other violent crimes, it is almost always accepted without question. Non-violent crimes like robbery, forgery, and such are usually accepted. Civil cases such as divorce are another matter. It really depends on the judge.

In theory, the police could use the data to hand out tickets. If your phone is going at 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, then the car it is in must be as well. To the best of my knowledge, they haven't tried that yet. Those automatic toll collection devices for turnpikes can do it with even more ease, but again, they haven't done it - I suspect because it would scare people away from using them.

If you really want to go down the cell phone location route, talk to your lawyer about getting legal authority to do so. All you would really need to know is his cell phone carrier and cell number. In reality, just the number would do since they are specific to the carrier, but the carrier would simplify it a bit.

[doodadem]

5. Do you know if any of these web companies are legit?

It looks like there are several that used to offer this service, like AccuTrack, but have stopped because of the new legislation.

[HopeHoops]

6. No, but I wouldn't trust them for what you are trying to do.

If your lawyer has significant experience in divorce cases, he/she will know of several that can be used for the purpose.

[doodadem]

7. Well, she's only a paralegal

I'm having to go the cheapest possible route as he also cleaned out all the bank accounts.

I have to figure out a way to do this myself........