Nissan Pickup Stolen in New Orleans Using Valey Key — Recovered with Only Bumper Damage Minutes Later
- March 29, 2012
- recovery stories
On February 5, 2012, the owner of a Nissan Titan parked and secured his vehicle in the driveway of his home near the University of New Orleans. He heard his truck startup 30 minutes later, at which time he looked outside and observed someone driving off in his Titan. He located both sets of his keys, but realized that the valet key was inside of the glove box. He called and reported the theft to the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). After all the pertinent information was gathered, officers with the NOPD entered the vehicle’s information into the nationwide law enforcement stolen vehicle computer system. This routine action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the vehicle. Neither the owners nor law enforcement had to do anything else to cause the activation of the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with law enforcement is both seamless and instantaneous.
25 minutes later, an officer of the New Orleans Police Department received the silent homing signals from the stolen Titan with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) installed in their patrol cars. The officers then queried the LoJack “Reply Code” appearing on the PTC display screens with the police stolen vehicle computer system and received both confirmation that the signals were coming from the stolen Titan, and a full description of the vehicle. The officers were then given directional and signal strength information by the PTC. Following these cues, the officers tracked and located the vehicle, parked in a New Orleans East apartment complex. The Nissan Titan was recovered in good shape, with only minor damage to the bumper.
Police called the owner, who arrived at the recovery scene to retrieve his vehicle. The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed at the owner’s request in April 2007.