A 72-year-old Ohio man who placed a GPS tracker on a delivery van to follow Pokémon card shipments has been sentenced to a year of probation — with the first 90 days spent wearing a tracking device of his own. Kent Kubasta, of Medina, Ohio, attached a Spytec device to the van of a woman described in court documents as a carrier and vendor of Pokémon cards. She found the device while making a delivery to a Walmart on June 18.
Kubasta initially pleaded not guilty but later waived trial and pleaded no contest to illegal use of a tracking device. Court records say he planted the tracker to follow local card deliveries, though they do not explain what he intended to do with that information. His sentence includes basic supervision, no contact with the woman, a $25 monthly supervision fee, a $500 fine, and court costs, bringing his total bill to $905.50. Violating the terms could mean six months in jail.
The case highlights how consumer GPS hardware can be repurposed for surveillance, and how courts are willing to apply the same technology to monitor the offender. It also lands amid intense demand for Pokémon cards, with collectors queuing outside shops for new stock and rare cards selling for six- or seven-figure sums. As one store manager put it, Pokémon is "absolutely the hottest thing going" — though most collectors manage to pursue the hobby without tracking a delivery driver.