I have worked a lot of construction site burglaries, and traditionally they are rather hard to break, but with the GPS system, we could track them down in less than 24 hours.

The devices informed Rowland that the stolen items were at an apartment complex less than half a mile from his store. Later, the devices showed the merchandise had been moved to a house in Lawrence. Rowland called police, who recovered the merchandise…

Tracking devices are getting small enough to tackle this sort of job. If it will hold a cell phone, it will hold a GPS tracking device.
Via Digg.

Police tracked the men to A AAA Mini Storage in Harbor Gateway, where investigators recovered more than $60,000 worth of generators, jackhammers, nail guns and other tools, Los Angeles police Detective Lou Koven said.

Later, detectives impounded a second van parked on a South L.A. street. Koven said he believed it contained another $60,000 in stolen property.

Source: LA Daily News

Related post:

• GPS asset tracking catches thieves

…assesses fleet operator interest in installed and handset-based MRM solutions, as well as willingness to pay and intent to purchase. In addition to GPS tracking, the study covers a wide range of other services including navigation, traffic, remote vehicle diagnostics, data messaging, weather alerts, fuel prices, and others. The study also assesses satisfaction with MRM systems and services among current users. Opinions of fleet operators ranging from local service fleets to truckload carriers are covered in the research.

The 2007 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services was partially funded by 13 companies, including leading cellular carriers, digital mapping suppliers, and suppliers of Mobile Resource Management equipment, software and services. This comprehensive new study is based on a nationwide telephone survey of over 500 fleet operators. Survey participants were drawn from all major categories of fleets, including service, local and over-the-road trucking, private delivery, utilities, transportation and government fleets. The sample included a balance of small and large fleets from all major U.S. regions.

The full GPS fleet tracking survey can be purchased directly from C.J. Driscoll.

“NAVTEQ is extremely excited to be associated with the best navigation product commercially available for large Class 6-8 trucks. The combination of NAVTEQ’s fresh map data and Maptuit’s innovative, robust routing application is a tremendous win for commercial fleets.”

A study by C.J. Driscoll and Associates indicates that 1.9 million GPS/wireless devices are used for this purpose, and that the market will grow to 5.9 million by 2009. Automatic vehicle location (AVL) is one of the most commonly used components of MRM.

More information can be found in this reprint on Telematics from Automotive Fleet magazine.

GPS tracking, Telematics, Automatic vehicle location, RFID, Mobile resource management

Acadian On Watch, a Guardian reseller, provided GPS monitoring, resulting in arrests and the break-up of a theft ring that had been in operation since 2005. The specific device used was a Trimble TrimTrac® locator, designed for periodic autonomous position reporting and/or real-time on-demand polling, and cost-effective wireless communications. Here are some details from the Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems press release:

The oil field equipment, known as chart recorders, was being stolen in batches from production sites every month for the past year. While each chart recorder is worth under $5,000, the ultimate cost of the theft can be many times that amount due to the productivity lost while the recorders were out of commission. Acadian worked closely with the VPSO (Vermillion Parish Sheriff’s Office) to install Trimble GPS devices on several “bait” chart recorders used in the field, and provided 24/7 monitoring services using the Guardian system. Acadian staff also configured Guardian’s software to automatically alert officers assigned to the case via email and cell phone alerts…

…On October 10th, one of the bait chart recorders was stolen, and the built-in motion detector on the GPS device alerted Acadian monitoring staff and guided the VPSO with updated location information directed to their cell phones during the recovery process. The stolen equipment was tracked to the thief’s location where the VPSO made the initial arrests. Additional arrests were made several days later, ultimately breaking up the theft ring.

Technorati tags: GPS tracking, GPS tracking and theft prevention