History Main / TrackingDevice

* As part of his release agreement with the {{FBI}}, Neal Caffrey of ''WhiteCollar'' has to wear an ankle tracking bracelet at all times (until his 4-year term is up, anyway). He cannot leave a 2-mile radius of his home (which, fortunately for him, is in Manhattan) except with an FBI escort, and if he tries to remove it without authorization (occasionally given as part of an operation), it sends out a signal.

* Johnny Five from ''ShortCircuit'' has a tracking device that he tosses into the bed of a passing pickup truck.
* In ''TheMatrix'', the three Agents implant a literal (robotic) bug in Neo's body that they plan to use to track him.

* Also in ''SwatKats''. Hard Drive and Dark Kat stole the Turbo Kat and used it to commit crimes and frame the heroes. They demanded several bags of money. Commander Feral hid a tracking device in one of them. The bad guys throw away a bag (presumably the one with the tracking device) and, using a device to impersonate T-Bone's voice, said "Nice try, Feral!"

* TheFilmOfTheSeries of ''Series/TheAvengers''. Steed gives Mrs. Peel a set of boots with an implanted "micro-tag" (radio homing signal). He later uses it to locate and rescue her.

* Both the heroes and villains use these in ''ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman''. Finding or evading them are plot points in several episodes.
* ''AiNoKusabi'' has "[[SexSlave Pet]] Rings" which all have built in tracers to track a pet's whereabouts. One pet in particular find this out the hard way.

* Also in ''SwatKatsTheRadicalSquadron''. Hard Drive and Dark Kat stole the Turbo Kat and used it to commit crimes and frame the heroes. They demanded several bags of money. Commander Feral hid a tracking device in one of them. The bad guys throw away a bag (presumably the one with the tracking device) and, using a device to impersonate T-Bone's voice, said "Nice try, Feral!"

* May be one of the most used devices in the series ''{{Alias}}''.

* Played for laughs in an episode of JackieChanAdventures. An episode that involves clones of the heroes has Captain Black place a tracking device on one of the Jackies. He starts bragging about before the real Jackie points out that it's on him instead of the escaped clone.

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Most tracking or surveillance devices depicted in fiction are so small that they cannot include important components such as a power source, antenna, microphones, etc. This used to seem like magical tech back in the day, but as TechnologyMarchesOn with the advent of mobile phones that allow tracking by cell tower, and USB Pen Drive-sized GPS trackers, extremely miniature tracking devices are rapidly becoming TruthInTelevision.

* Frank Herbert's ''Children of Dune''. When Alia sends Buer Agarves on a diplomatic mission to Stilgar, she conceals a homing signal in the new boots she gives him so her forces can follow him and capture Stilgar.

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* Early in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha [=ViVid=]'', after [[spoiler:Hegemon Ingvalt]] walked away in apparent victory, the near-immobile [[spoiler:Nove Nakajima]] contacts [[spoiler:Subaru Nakajima]] and [[TheReveal reveals]] that she planted a sensor on her during their battle, so they can track her down and capture her at any time they want.

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* In the ''{{Leverage}}'' episode "The Stork Job", Hardison plants a GPS transmitter on Parker as he's worried that she's going to run off and do something stupid on her own. He ends up being right.

Used to seem like magical tech back in the day, but as TechnologyMarchesOn with the advent of mobile phones that allow tracking by cell tower, and USB Pen Drive-sized GPS trackers, the tracking device is rapidly becoming TruthInTelevision.

* ''TheAvengers''. Steed gives Mrs. Peel a set of boots with an implanted "micro-tag" (radio homing signal). He later uses it to locate and rescue her.

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