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By Lyle Goldstein

I remember the day I decided to get a car with GPS tracking. It was a Monday, two years ago. I was on the phone at work when I happened to glance out my office window. I guess I unconsciously looked for my own car. I spotted it just as the call ended. As I was hanging up I noticed a sizable dent in the passenger door. My first reaction was that somebody had hit me after I had parked, but as soon as that thought occurred to me I discounted it because I had parked at the end of a row. That put the passenger door right next to a chain link fence, where it couldn’t have been hit.

I knew the dent hadn’t happened while I’d been driving, and I was the only one who drove the car – my wife has her own. If I had GPS tracking, I wondered, would I be able to check my travel history and find out when the car was used without my knowledge? I thought back to the night before. I’d gone to bed after the 11 o’clock news. The only person still up was my 15 year old son, Bobby.

That was when I knew Bobby had taken my car out for a joyride. I confronted him that night and he swore up and down that he hadn’t. I wanted to believe him, but it seemed to fit. Like all 15 year olds, Bobby had been pushing the limits of his parent’s tolerance – staying out later and later until we had to impose a curfew. His last report card hadn’t been great, either, come to think of it.

It is a terrible moment when you realize your child is lying and there is nothing you can do about it. GPS tracking would have eliminated his plausible deniability. I talked with my wife. We were worried by our son’s behavior. Kids today live in a culture that contains so many temptations; so many threats. I’d been looking at buying a new car and we had discussed the GPS option.

That night we decided a GPS device was something we needed – for the sake of our son. We bought the new car, and we mentioned anything about device. The next time Bobby went joyriding, we knew where he’d gone – a seedy neighborhood known for drug usage and then to a friend’s. Today Bobby’s back on track, thanks to GPS tracking.