Former policeman plants hidden GPS to track woman’s car

A former Costa Mesa police officer was sentenced to counseling and more than $1,500 in fines for illegally planting a tracking device on a woman’s car so he could follow her around.

Aaron Paul Parsons, 31, pleaded no contest Monday to one misdemeanor charge of unlawfully using an electronic tracking device — specifically, a Costa Mesa Police Department global positioning system.

On March 18, 2010, Parsons hid the GPS device under a 32-year-old woman’s car and after that, would run into her at places he didn’t typically go.

After several of these incidents, the woman grew suspicious, then checked her car, found the device and called police.

Parsons was fired from police department shortly thereafter. His dismissal ended up saving another officers’ job during cutbacks last year.

He was sentenced to eight hours of counseling and ordered to pay $1,500 to Orange County Superior Court’s Victim Witness Emergency Fund.

—Joseph Serna