“False Valet” Stole Toyota Prius in Miami Beach — Recovered by Police Quickly the Next Morning
- March 21, 2012
- recovery stories
On Sunday morning, January 22, 2012, the daughter of the owner of a 2011 Toyota Prius 4-door sedan contacted the Miami Beach Police Department to report the vehicle stolen. Upon arrival at the scene, the responding officer met with the owner. The owner stated that at 9PM the previous night, his daughter had given her keys to someone that she believed was a valet on Washington Ave & 6th in Miami Beach, FL. At approximately 4:30am that morning, she realized that the vehicle was missing.
The officer prepared a stolen vehicle report and had the vehicle’s information entered into the federal and state crime computers. This routine police procedure automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Prius.
Minutes later, officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department received the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Toyota’s LoJack unit on their patrol car’s LoJack Police Tracking Computer. Unfortunately the officers were unable to locate the Prius on the Port of Miami, so they requested that the Miami-Dade Police Department’s “chopper” respond to the area. Once at the location, the pilot located the general vicinity of the Prius signal and contacted the Miami Beach Police Department to respond. The ground unit from Miami Beach picked up the signal and tracked the Prius to a parking lot near 6th Street and Alton Road. The vehicle was recovered with no theft damage, towed to the police impound yard for safekeeping, and removed from federal and state crime computer systems.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in this Toyota Prius 4-door sedan on July 30, 2011, and has been protecting it ever since.