Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum and I was wondering if someone could help me out. I have a very strong reason to believe that a former coworker has placed a GPS tracker in or on my vehicle. Without going into too many details, I know that:

(1) This tracker has been there for months,
(2) This tracker can transmit data when movement is detected, and
(3) It may be inside or outside my vehicle, and it would have been added while the car was in my driveway, possibly approached from the passenger side to avoid my doorbell camera.

Based on my research, it's likely in a low power mode that only transmits data when the vehicle moves and not at other times, which makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint using a bug detector.

My question to the forum is this: Based on your extensive knowledge of the build of these vehicles, where do you think this tracker would be? I know these people and they would have made it very difficult to find.

Put another way: if you wanted to hide a small GPS device on someone's car, where would YOU put it? Thank you so much!

Edit: my vehicle is a 2014 Mazda 3 S Grand Touring Hatchback

Edit2: I forgot to mention that I asked the dealer to look for anything suspicious during my last oil change. They said the technician(s) couldn't find anything but I don't know how hard they looked.

 

I would Welcome you to the forum. But my guess you are looking for only one answer to one question and will be gone once you get some answer worth considering?
Normally I would not even respond on these very unusual threads but I am drinking my coffee and eating breakfast and was mildly entertained by this thread.

A short summary only in that it could very lengthy in answering the question with so many variables.

Most none agency GPS trackers are fairly low quality and should be easy to find. You just need to get you Mazda up off the ground and look carefully around with a flashlight. These type generally do not work well if they have been placed under a vehicle because of all the metal blocking the signal. Based on your information it is unlikely they removed the under plastic cover but you can still look to see if any part of it was tampered with. Had and of the plastic fastener been removed it is very likely they will show slight damage to the when re-installed. The GPS device would be more easily seen on the body that will have more direct unobstructed signal. So they are actual easy to find. Just do a walk around and look at everything then reverse the direction and walk around the MAZDA again. By doing a clockwise and then counterclockwise inspection your brain will pick up any inconsistencies in the body lines and shapes of objects better.

If the person used a high quality and very expensive GPS tracker, then good luck finding it as it was likely placed in an area that would be very hard to find without some experience knowing what to look for and how to find it.

There are GPS tracker finders available on the market but a clever "SPY" would only activate the tracker when there si a known use of your vehicle and some information as to your habits. This type of person may have gone to the extent to disguise the G{S tracker as a OEM MAZDA part and easily overlooked unless you knew or someone looking knew all the parts under your MAZDA.
An amateur but someone that knows a little about cars may have placed it in the are close to the wipers. Easy to get to and attack making it look disguised as normal MAZDA part.

The gps tracker used by a friend in security looks like a common ordinary writing pen ($$$) even works like one and they place it in the glove box. They know they will unlikely retrieve them. But then if they are doing that surveillance are well compensated for their time. LOL