Recovery of Stolen Honda Accord in Haverhill Reveals Possible Local Theft Ring, 3 Vehicles Recovered
- March 14, 2012
- recovery stories
The owner of a 1994 Honda Accord last saw his vehicle when it was parked outside his residence in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the evening of February 22, 2012. When the victim returned to his vehicle the following morning, he discovered that it was missing. The victim immediately reported the theft to the Haverhill Police Department. The responding officer took a stolen vehicle report and relayed the information to the department’s computer operator. The operator entered the Honda’s information into the state and federal crime computer database. This routine entry automatically activated the hidden LoJack Transponder in the reported stolen vehicle, causing it to begin transmitting a silent homing signal.
A short time later, officers from the Lawrence Police Department began picking up the silent LoJack homing signal on Police Tracking Computers installed in their police vehicles. One of the officers received a very strong signal in the area of South Broadway Street, and by following the computer’s prompts, was able to quickly locate the unoccupied stolen vehicle, parked in the rear parking area of an elderly housing complex on Salem Street in South Lawrence. The officer reported that the vehicle had sustained ignition damage.
In the process of recovering the vehicle, the officer observed a Honda parked beside the stolen one — suspiciously, both Hondas were the same year and model. On a hunch, the officer called the second vehicle’s license plate in. The registration check revealed that this vehicle had also been reported stolen to the Haverhill Police Department. Oddly, that same morning, a third Honda, reported stolen from North Andover, was recovered by the MASP-GATSF using LoJack, in the Bradford section of Haverhill. In the last few weeks, numerous Hondas have been both reported stolen out of Haverhill and recovered in Haverhill. All of these latest recoveries were scheduled to be impounded for forensic examination by involved agencies.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in this Honda Accord at the owner’s request, on December 12, 1996.