Police: Man used recording, tracking devices to spy on ex-girlfriend
An Aurora man charged with spying on his ex-girlfriend confessed to police in February an elaborate scheme of using fake keys to visit her apartment so he could rotate recording devices and fashioning tracking devices out of old iPhones for her vehicle.
Juan Ramos-Avila, 25, of the 500 block of North Avenue, faces charges of felony residential burglary, unauthorized video recording, eavesdropping and unlawful use of a tracking device.
According to an affidavit used to secure a search warrant, Ramos-Avila detailed his spying scheme after he was caught at 10 a.m. Feb. 15 entering the woman's apartment, carrying a backpack and wearing blue rubber gloves.
The woman's boyfriend heard the front door open and a man come in, so he punched the man, detained him and called police.
The woman found an audio recording device taped inside her nightstand Feb. 14 and called her boyfriend. They later found a camera in the bedroom curtains with slits in the fabric, according to the affidavit.
Ramos-Avila said during a video-recorded confession that the woman broke up with him a year ago, police said. They gave the following account.
He said he researched ways to break into homes using bump keys, entered the woman's apartment in August and read letters written to her by her new love interest. He came back, hid a voice-activated audio recorder in her room and returned a day or two later to get it, but the bedroom's air conditioning unit made noise and the device's batteries had drained.
He then put the recorder in the nightstand and a motion-activated camera in the curtains. The camera battery didn't last long, so Ramos-Avila bought a second camera to exchange with it whenever he would return to the apartment using the bump key.
He told police that he taped cellphones underneath the cars of the woman and her boyfriend and then activated the "find my phone" app on each phone to get a location.
The phone batteries would last a week and he would then change them. "(Ramos-Avila) explained he would do this late at night or early morning, under the cover of darkness," according to the affidavit.
Ramos-Avila is free after posting $1,000 bail and due in court Wednesday. He faces anywhere from probation to 15 years in prison if convicted.