Man stalks ex with GPS tracker, nearly blinds her with chemical, feds in PA say
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to prison after officials said he stalked his ex-girlfriend, then attacked her with a chemical in public.
Victor Ortiz, 47, was sentenced to seven years in prison after he was found guilty of stalking in September, according to court records.
On May 4, 2022, a woman in Philadelphia parked her car, got out and began walking to work. She took about five or six steps, then a man came from behind her, grabbed her and threw a liquid in her face, she told investigators, according to a criminal affidavit.
The woman pushed him and began running as she felt her face burning and she couldn’t open her left eye, the affidavit said.
The woman said the man also took her cellphone, according to the affidavit.
The woman was temporarily blinded and has “permanent scarring on her body,” according to an April 11 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Investigators found surveillance video of the scene and observed a man wearing dark clothing that matched the woman’s description, court records said. However, she said she didn’t recognize him, according to the affidavit.
On May 25, the woman told authorities someone accessed her Facebook page and WhatsApp account and posted and sent explicit and sexual images of her, according to the affidavit.
On June 4, investigators showed the woman another surveillance video. This time, when the man was close to the camera, the woman said, “that’s Victor,” officials said.
Investigators paused on a still frame showing the man, and the woman again said, “that’s Victor, that’s my ex,” the affidavit said.
Authorities were able to track the woman’s phone .2 miles from where Ortiz lived, the court records said.
Then, on June 6, the woman asked authorities to inspect her vehicle. On its frame, investigators found a GPS tracking device, the affidavit said.
Authorities were unable to collect fingerprints and physical evidence, so they photographed the device and left it on the vehicle, according to the affidavit. The next day, it was gone, court records said.
Later in June, investigators learned that the liquid thrown in the woman’s face was a “caustic alkaline substance” called sodium carbonate hydrate, also commonly known as soda ash, the affidavit said.
“Victor Ortiz has a troubling pattern of refusing to move on when his relationships end,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said in the release. “In this case, he grew more and more fixated on his ex-partner, escalating from harassment to stalking to a violent assault that caused his victim lasting physical and emotional harm.”
Ortiz was convicted in 2005 of harassing his ex-wife, and in 2016, he stalked another ex-girlfriend with a GPS device he put in her vehicle, prosecutors said.
