Stolen Saturn SL Recovered, Undamaged, by Fresno Police Using LoJack
- March 6, 2012
- recovery stories
On February 8, 2012, the owner of a 1997 Saturn SL contacted the Fresno Police Department to report the vehicle stolen. After gathering the pertinent information about the theft, Fresno Police entered the Saturn’s information into the California Stolen Vehicle System and NCIC, the national crime database. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the vehicle. Neither the owners nor law enforcement had to do anything else to activate the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with law enforcement is both seamless and instantaneous.
A little less than four hours later, an investigator from CCAT, the Fresno Police Department Auto Theft Task Force, began receiving the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Saturn on his onboard LoJack Police Tracking Computer (PTC). The investigator ran the reply code that appeared on his display screen and received the stolen vehicle information and a description of the vehicle. Following the PTC”s cues, the investigator then tracked the Saturn to the vicinity of Maple and Fir Avenues in northeast Fresno. There, he located the vehicle, abandoned on the side of the road in a residential area. Members of the task force initiated a surveillance of the vehicle for several hours but the thieves never returned.
The Saturn SL was recovered intact and undamaged; it was stored pending release to the owner.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Saturn in October of 1997.