PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Montgomery County man has been sentenced to up to two years in prison for stalking a woman in Bethlehem.
Matthew Bustin, 34, pleaded guilty in November to stalking a woman for several months between 2023 and 2024.
The investigation started when the woman told police she thought a GPS tracking device was somewhere on her vehicle. Officers found one and traced it to Bustin, who admitted he put it on her car.
A month later, in January, she told investigators that Bustin approached her in the parking lot of her apartment complex about a dead car battery, but eventually asked for her number over interest in moving to the complex.
The woman told police Bustin would repeatedly reach out to her on Instagram — at one point, impersonating a female — and through text. She said she told him she wasn’t interested, but he persisted.
On Valentine’s Day, police say he anonymously sent her candies shaped like genitals and on a separate occasion, security cameras caught him leaving flowers on her car at work.
In 2018 in Lehigh County, Bustin was put on 12 months probation after loitering and prowling outside an ex-girlfriend’s home.
Bustin is awaiting trial in Bucks County for a separate case on charges of burglary, stalking and trespassing.
Officials say that case does not involve the previous girlfriend.