A Penn Township man was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday on accusations he stalked his ex-girlfriend for months after their breakup and damaged her new boyfriend’s truck. Instead, the hearing was postponed after the woman discovered a tracking device hidden inside her car.

Charged in October with retaliation against a witness, stalking and three harassment complaints filed by North Huntingdon police, Joshuwa Petrill, 38, has a new stalking charge. He was remanded to the county jail, with District Judge Wayne Gongaware increasing his bond from $25,000 to $100,000, according to court dockets.

The North Huntingdon woman reported being the victim of “increasingly controlling behaviors” of Petrill since July, including him taking her car and refusing to return it, coming to her home unannounced repeatedly, breaking windows and cutting valve stems off her car tires, Officer Jay Kettren alleged in court documents filed last fall.

The new complaint alleges that following Petrill’s arrest, the woman took her car in for service at Precision Transmission on Route 30. Mechanics discovered a GPS tracking device hidden “behind the glove box, stuck to the metal body of her vehicle,” Officer Thomas Harris wrote in court documents.

Through a court order, the woman also had a cellphone she owned returned to her that Petrill had been using, Harris said. After she obtained the phone, the woman told Harris it contained a text message dated Sept. 25 that stated Petrill “had a GPS car tracking device he purchased delivered to his home.”

“(She) told me that she is in fear of what Joshuwa might do to her, and she fears for her safety,” Harris wrote in court documents filed Wednesday.

Police said the woman obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Petrill last summer. However, court records said the incidents had escalated afterward with him “calling and texting her more than 40 times” when she was at her boyfriend’s home near New Kensington, informing her he was watching her during her child’s out-of-town sporting event and leaving identifying stickers “with his motorcycle racing number and name on it” attached to her car window when she shopped locally.

In November, New Kensington District Judge Frank Pallone found sufficient evidence for Petrill to stand trial on charges of criminal mischief and intimidation of a witness filed by city police in connection with incidents last fall at the boyfriend’s home.

Police reported the woman’s boyfriend discovered his pickup truck was keyed after she received a threatening text from Petrill stating, “Nice black truck … hate to see something happen to it.”

Gongaware rescheduled the preliminary hearing on all the complaints for Feb. 5.

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