A Pennsylvania man has been charged with the grisly crime of placing a GPS tracking device in the car of a woman he had met online, as well as stalking her and cutting off her electricity and internet.
In April, a woman residing in Bucks County reported to Bensalem police that she had returned home after a trip out of town to discover that someone had turned off all the circuit breakers in her home and unscrewed her Internet connection. your wall.
When law enforcement officers later examined the woman’s vehicle, they found a magnetized GPS tracking device underneath it, according to NBC Philadelphia.
A detective was then able to recover data from the device, which led them back to Matthew Bustin, 33, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
The data showed that the device had begun transmitting the location of the woman’s car on April 5 of this year at her workplace in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Pictured: GPS tracking device found by police in the car of a woman who was allegedly harassed by a Pennsylvania man.
Surveillance footage taken outside his workplace showed a man getting out of a black Honda Civic and dropping to the ground next to the woman’s car before reaching under the vehicle and then returning to his car.
Police were able to quickly identify the man as Bustin.
The harassment victim told investigators she met Bustin on the dating app Hinge, but became uncomfortable with him after a few meetings and ended their relationship before blocking him on social media.
The woman said Bustin continued texting her and showed up unexpectedly.
Location data from Bustin’s cell phone, for which officers obtained a warrant, showed that he was near the woman’s home and workplace at least nine times without her knowledge after the time she He cut off contact.
The data also showed that Bustin had been near the woman’s home when the power went out between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on April 14, while she was on vacation.
After obtaining an arrest warrant, Bustin was charged with robbery, burglary, stalking and harassment.
He turned himself in to Bensalem police last Saturday before being processed and sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility. His bail was set at $2 million.
Pennsylvania detectives are now gathering as much evidence as possible in an effort to put the repeat offender away for good.
However, this was not the first time Bustin had gotten into legal trouble for allegedly harassing a woman.
He was accused of doing something similar to a woman in Lehigh County earlier this year, according to a criminal complaint.
That woman told investigators she had met Bustin at her apartment complex earlier this year when he asked her for help starting his car.
After she helped him, the couple exchanged phone numbers and he asked her for recommendations on places to live in the area.
In early February, the woman said she received an anonymous package at her address containing Valentine’s Day letters and jelly beans shaped like female genitalia.
Days later, Bustin requested to follow the woman on Instagram, in addition to texting her half a dozen times that month.
Finally, in March, the woman told Bustin that she was making it “very clear” that she was not interested in dating or relating to him in any way.
He tried again to follow his Instagram. She then texted him several times. She then showed up at her workplace, all within a span of three days.
The victim told investigators she found a bouquet of flowers in her car. She reacted by calling the police, who then found a GPS tracking device under her car.
The device, authorities say, was similar to the one found under the Montgomery County woman’s car.
Matthew Bustin, 33, is being held on $2 million bail after being charged with robbery, burglary, stalking and harassment.
Bustin was also arrested and charged with harassment in connection with that incident, but was released on bail. NBC reports that he was also accused of a harassment case in 2018.
Authorities believe there may be more victims of harassment and would like to hear from them. Anyone is encouraged to contact Detective Connor Farnan at 215-633-3632.