Noisy Muffler Alerts Owner to Theft of Honda Accord — Recovered Minutes Later by Louisiana Police
- March 29, 2012
- recovery stories
On February 24, 2012, the owner of a 1998 Honda Accord parked his vehicle and went inside a store in Mid City, New Orleans. A few minutes later, he heard his engine start up, because it had a bad muffler, and looked outside to discover someone driving off in the vehicle. He checked his pockets, and realized that he must have dropped the keys when he got out the car. He called and reported the theft to the New Orleans Police Department.
After gathering all of the information pertinent to the theft, New Orleans Police entered the Accord’s information into the state and federal crime databases. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Honda. 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.
30 minutes later, officers with the New Orleans Police Department received the silent homing signals from the stolen Honda with the LoJack Police Tracking Computer (PTC) installed in their patrol cars. After querying the LoJack “Reply Code” appearing on the PTC display screens with the police stolen vehicle computer system, the officers received both confirmation that the signals were coming from a the stolen Honda, and a full description of the vehicle. Following the directional and signal strength cues on the PTC, the officers and State Troopers tracked the signals throughout the city. It was later located, parked and unoccupied on a Mid City street. The Honda Accord was recovered in good shape and impounded until the owner could be contacted.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed at the owner’s request in July 1998.