'Not OK to stalk people': Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve sues PI after GPS tracking device found on her car
WASHOE COUNTY, NEVADA: Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve filed a lawsuit against a private detective and his company, alleging that he placed a tracker on her personal vehicle. In her lawsuit, Schieve claimed that David McNeely, the private investigator working with 5 Alpha Industries got into her property as an "unidentified third party" and without her consent, a GPS tracking device was installed on her car.
According to the complaint filed in the Second Judicial District Court of Washoe County, it is stated that “the tracking and surveillance of Schieve caused her, as it would cause any reasonable person, significant fear and distress,” reports the New York Post.
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The Mayor received the information on the installation of the tracking device after a mechanic informed her of the tracker he found while he was working on her car. The purchase of the tracker by a private detective was revealed after Schieve took the device to the police in Sparks, Nevada, who confirmed the investigator was McNeely.
Schieve has held Reno's mayor office since 2014 and was re-elected to a third term last month. According to The Nevada Independent, which first reported the complaint filing, the mayor stated that she came to know of the matter about the device two weeks prior to election day.
“I am publicly announcing this now, and did not make any public statements at the time when it was discovered, to make clear that this is about one thing, and one thing only: it is not OK to stalk people,” the Mayor said.
According to the complaint, Schieve is seeking to recompense for invasion of privacy, trespassing, civil conspiracy, negligence, and attorney’s costs, as well as the identity of the client, as per the New York Post report. Without any evidence, the lawsuit has also claimed that the company has “installed similar tracking devices on other vehicles of multiple other prominent community members.”
"Our complaint is based on Defendants’ outrageous invasion of privacy by installing a GPS tracking device on Ms. Schieve’s personal vehicle,” said Schieve's attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner. In the emailed statement, the attorney further added that “We will aggressively seek to determine who hired the private investigators and will be amending our complaint to assert claims against them as well," according to a local news source.