Saskatoon police say they believe they haven’t found all of the GPS trackers a man is believed to have planted on vehicles in the city.
Saskatoon police say Marty Schira, 46, is in custody and facing 36 charges: several each of harassment, intimidation, mischief, fraudulent use of a computer system and fraudulent concealment of a computer system. Police say each tracker located results in at least an additional five charges.
Police say that in each of the seven cases of trackers discovered on vehicles so far, the devices have been found underneath the vehicle, inside the rear fender wall, near the tire.
Police believe there are at least 10 more trackers still out there, though the number could be higher.
“We don’t know,” Staff Sgt. Brett Maki said when asked how many.
“That’s why we’re trying to enlist the public’s help in trying to recover these before they all die, the chargers lose their energy from the batteries. We’d like to recover as many as we can.”
The trackers are installed with magnets, wrapped in black tape and will look out of place, Maki said. If people are not sure where to look, Maki suggested taking their vehicle to a mechanic.
Saskatoon police say that in all cases so far, the GPS trackers have been located inside a rear fender. (Saskatoon Police Service)
The investigation began on Sept. 6, 2024, after a citizen reported having found two GPS trackers on his vehicle.
It led officers to search an apartment in the 2000 block of 20th Street West, where officers found more trackers.
Some victims unknown to Schira: police
Maki said the trackers are owned by a subscription-based company and that’s how officers learned there are additional trackers allegedly under Schira’s name.
Maki said Schira knows some of the people who were being tracked, but not others.
He added that similar issues with people’s locations being tracked have been reported before, but not to this extent.
Maki said it is not illegal to own such trackers, but that Schira is alleged to have been using them unlawfully.
Couple discover trackers on truck
When Daelyn Boettcher found taped devices planted in the rear end of his truck, he said he knew what they were “right away.”
Boettcher said he had been working on the truck’s brakes when he saw the equipment on the corner of his eye.
“My first reaction was I thought somebody was trying to steal my truck,” he said.
Boettcher said police hinted the devices had likely been attached to the vehicle for several months.
“He knows everything there is to know about us.”
Daelyn Boettcher points inside the fender of his vehicle, where he said he found the GPS tracker. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
His girlfriend, Mackenzie Hanson, said they reported the trackers to police after determining neither of them had planted the devices.
Hanson later learned Schira was alleged to have planted the trackers. She searched his name and learned Schira had previously been convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping.
“I felt super uncomfortable and uneasy,” Hanson said.
“I don’t go anywhere alone anymore, pretty much, and I just watch over my shoulder a lot more.”
Schira’s previous convictions
In May 2004, Schira pleaded guilty in a Calgary provincial courtroom to sexual assault and kidnapping.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Schira abducted a woman at gunpoint as she was walking in her hometown of Rosetown, Sask., in June 2003.
Court documents say Schira drove her to Calgary, sexually assaulting her both in his vehicle on the way to the city and inside his apartment.
He was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison. However, later that year, the Alberta Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to 13 years.
According to documents from the Parole Board of Canada in 2017, Schira stabbed a correctional officer with a protractor in June 2013, resulting in two years being added to his sentence.
The document quotes Schira’s case management team, saying he has made little progress addressing his offending behaviour, including violence, sexual deviancy and mental health deficiencies.
The parole board said at the time that if Schira was released he was likely to reoffend, causing serious harm to another person, before the end of his sentence.
A psychological risk assessment completed in December 2016 said Schira presented features of various schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
GPS tracker technology has pros, cons
University of Manitoba computer science professor David Gerhard said there are both beneficial and nefarious uses for trackers. He gave examples like people using trackers to follow their vehicles or possessions in case of theft, or for safety if they are hiking in the backwoods, as positives.
“But, of course, if you take one of these little boxes and put it on somebody else’s vehicle instead of your own vehicle, then you can know their location without their consent,” he said.
“And that’s a bad thing.”
Trackers like these have been found in the fenders of seven vehicles in and around Saskatoon. The man accused of planting them is facing 36 charges because of it, including harassment and intimidation. (Saskatoon Police Service)
Gerhard said that with some trackers that use cellular networks, like Apple Airtags, people with Apple phones or certain apps can be notified if a tracker is nearby and moving when they do.
Other trackers that use satellite signals do not have similar notification forms, he said.
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