Can You Legally Hide an AirTag in Your Ex’s Car in California?

A question that comes up a lot is: can I put an AirTag in my ex's vehicle? This is quite common, and it's quite unfortunate. So the first thing is, who does the car belong to? Is it a community asset? Was it acquired during marriage, so it's presumptively community? Okay — but who's driving it? You're separated. It's in the possession of whom? I hear a lot of excuses, and I've heard these on the stand, and quite frankly they're bullshit. They have no merit, and everybody laughs when they're coming out of the witness's mouth. But they say, "What, my kids ride in that car, so I wanted to track the movements of my kids." Okay, then give them a necklace, or put it in their backpack when they're with you. "I wanted to see where my car was going. I thought that it may get stolen." There's other ways to do that now — they used to have LoJack in the '90s. Oftentimes that's a bunch of bullshit. Basically what it comes down to is you're separated from your spouse, and you want to try to track her movements. People get caught doing this all the time, because they end up showing up at the same restaurant or the same mall. In this age in California, it is so easy to get a restraining order for stalking or for harassment. That would be a clear-cut indication that you're stalking and harassing. The point is that you can't do it. It could be stalking. And even if you have some creative excuses, the court is always going to consider that under a preponderance of evidence: is it more likely than not that you're stalking?