Man is accused of stalking by cellphone

Fort Worth Star Telegram , TX
Sept 5 2004

Wire Reports

GLENDALE, Calif. – Police arrested a man who they said tracked his
ex-girlfriend by attaching a cellphone with a global-positioning
system to her car.

Ara Gabrielyan, 32, was arrested Aug. 29 on one count of stalking
and three counts of making criminal threats. He was being held on
$500,000 bail and was to be arraigned Wednesday.

“This is what I would consider stalking of the 21st century,” police
Lt. Jon Perkins said.

Police said Gabrielyan tracked the 35-year-old woman, who was not
identified, after she ended their relationship, showing up unexpectedly
at a bookstore, an airport and dozens of other places she visited.

Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellphone to the woman’s car Aug.
16. The motion of the car activated the phone, which transmitted a
signal each minute to a satellite.

Information was then sent to a Web site that allowed Gabrielyan to
monitor the woman’s location.

That let Gabrielyan, who ran an Armenian CD and video-specialty shop,
arrange apparent chance encounters, even at the woman’s brother’s
grave site, police said.

The woman caught Gabrielyan under her car attempting to change the
cellphone’s battery, police said.

“It was an obsession, an obsession to the point where 24 hours a day
he had to know where she was, what she did, who she met and how she
carried out her daily routine,” Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Police say that over six months, Gabrielyan threatened to kill himself
and the woman.

An attorney for Gabrielyan could not be reached for comment Saturday.

He would face up to six years in prison if convicted.

GPS technology, which in recent years has been used to keep track of
children, the elderly and pets, gave Gabrielyan real-time updates on
the woman’s location every minute.

“The technology was designed with every good intention in the world,
but it was utilized for bad in this case,” Detective Mike Stilton said.