How To Be A Successful Criminal —Learn About GPS
Can’t resist. here’s another “Stupid Criminal” story where GPS (and smart thinking by the police) saved the day:
Investigators in Kittitas County say a stolen car equipped with the OnStar GPS system helped detectives crack theft ring.
Undersheriff Clayton Meyers said that over the last two months burglars have hit many vacation homes in the area, taking metal cable from power lines and stealing property from inside the houses.
On Wednesday morning, Meyers said a resident on Augusta Drive noticed his neighbor’s garage door open and car missing. The owner was travelling out of state at the time, so the man called police.
Meyers said the home had been burglarized and detectives learned that the stolen car had an OnStar tracking device installed. Investigators used the car’s OnStar system to track it to a storage unit in Auburn.
Police found the burglary suspects trying to rent a storage unit and arrested them. Officers were led to a motel room connected to the suspects and found stolen property from several of the other Kittitas County burglaries, Meyers said.
“This was a tremendous break in our cases,” Meyers said in a statement, “and it illustrates how technology continues to aid in public safety.”
Indeed. Having spent many years of my life living in rural areas I know that normal police patrol methods to catch crooks don’t always work very well. There is a lot of ground to cover and far too few police and sheriff’s deputies to cover it. Home invasion crumb-bums like these bright sparks of hope in the article know it too. Don’t rob banks, you’re almost certain to get caught. Just rip off people when they are away, safe, simple and almost fool proof … these sorts of crimes are rarely solved.
But thanks to OnStar there’s one less gang of cowards preying on people just because those folks decided not to live in the big city.
Hopefully, these criminals, when they get out of jail, will seriously consider getting a job like normal folks. But if they go back to their life of crime, do you think they’ll check on the GPS status of what they steal? Perhaps someone would like to comment on how the privacy rights of these low-life’s were violated?