Former UGM Student Leader Finds Two Suspected Tracking Devices on Car
Former Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Student Executive Board (BEM) chairman Tiyo Ardianto has reported finding two tracking devices on a car he was driving. The BEM UGM chairman for the 2025 period uploaded a video about the discovery of the tracker, named PBX Finder, via his personal Instagram account.
In his statement, Tiyo detailed the chronology of finding the trackers, which he suspects were installed from Friday (12/6). Tiyo recounted that he departed from Kudus to Semarang, Central Java, on Friday at 14.00 WIB driving a Toyota Fortuner belonging to his relative. Upon arrival, he stayed at a hotel in the Tembalang area and visited several places.
On Saturday morning, Tiyo attended a discussion event at the Central Java Quality Assurance Centre organised by Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang. There, he noticed several unknown individuals tailing him and openly taking his photograph. “That, in my opinion, was a signal that I was indeed under surveillance,” Tiyo said in his statement on Monday (15/6).
After the event, around 12.30 WIB, Tiyo departed for Yogyakarta to participate in a demonstration at the Gejayan intersection in Sleman, DIY. During the Semarang-Yogyakarta journey, Tiyo noticed several notifications appearing on his mobile phone. He ignored them as he was driving. After participating in the Gejayan action, between 20.00 WIB and 21.00 WIB, his phone again displayed notifications from a tracker named PBX Finder that was moving with him.
“I found a box-shaped device with a magnet attached to the rear part of the body. I took it and after consulting several people, I was told it should be soaked in water, so I soaked it in water overnight,” Tiyo explained. The following afternoon, Sunday (14/5) around 12.00 WIB, Tiyo returned to Semarang carrying the PBX Finder. However, his phone still received similar notifications indicating a tracker was moving with him. Tiyo thought the tracker had not been deactivated because he had not soaked it long enough. He again ignored it and handed the device to a colleague in Semarang.
“After I transferred it, I headed to the airport. But the notification still appeared. We searched again and found another device in a different form, a flat circle attached under the right rear tyre using black tape,” Tiyo revealed. Tiyo’s heart raced as he did not know whether the two devices were linked and installed at different times and places. He reasoned that the first device he found was clean, suggesting it was newly installed while he was in Yogyakarta. “It was not dirty at all, which might indicate the device was just installed when I was in Jogja. Because throughout the journey from Semarang to Jogja it rained several times, so if it was not dirty, it was likely just installed,” Tiyo suspected.
However, for the device attached to the tyre, the second one he found via the PBX Finder notification on his phone, after checking it turned out to have been installed since Friday, 12 June 2026. The device was last checked by its owner at 19.55 WIB, when Tiyo was still at the hotel in the Tembalang area. Tiyo admitted he initially did not understand what the device was or how it could appear through notifications on his phone, requiring him to consult an expert. “Even when it was conveyed that according to observers this could be traced back to when it was installed, I checked and my heart raced even more because it had been there since Friday, 12 June,” Tiyo confessed.
After delving into this information, Tiyo subsequently flew to Makassar to attend a previously scheduled discussion event. Regardless, Tiyo believes the trackers were installed in the easiest way for the target to discover, as that is precisely where the real terror lies. “I think that is exactly where the terror occurs. That this was deliberately installed for me to know, to serve as an alarm that wherever I go, there are people who know, there are people who are watching,” he concluded.