Dodge Caravan Stolen in Brooklyn Used to Transport Stolen Property in Other Thefts, Recovered with Only Minor Damage
- March 30, 2012
- recovery stories
On the night of March 9, 2012, the owner of a 1998 Dodge Caravan parked and locked his vehicle on the street where he lives in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, confines of the 79th precinct. When he returned for it later, he found it missing, and immediately called the Police of the 79th Precinct NYPD.
NYPD officers prepared a stolen vehicle report and had this information entered into the state and federal crime databases. This routine police action automatically and seamlessly activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Dodge Caravan. Neither the owner nor law enforcement agents had to do anything else to activate the LoJack system, as LoJack’s interface with the police is both seamless and instantaneous. The transponder then began to emit a silent homing signal to police vehicles in the area equipped with LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC).
Two hours later, officers with the Police of the Brooklyn North Auto Larceny Unit picked up the silent LoJack tracking signal from the stolen Caravan with their onboard PTCs. Following the computer’s tracking cues, the officers tracked the stolen vehicle through the north area of Brooklyn. They eventually located the Caravan in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, several miles from where they started tracking it. The vehicle was parked and abandoned on a residential street. The officers decided to conduct surveillance on the vehicle; however, when no one returned for it after a short while, the officers took the Caravan into custody.
Apparently, the Caravan was stolen to facilitate another theft, with the Caravan being used to transport the stolen property. There have been numerous thefts of this type of vehicle, wherein the thieves are using them to transport the stolen goods. The Caravan was recovered with only minor damage to the ignition. Police contacted the owner, who was elated to learn that his vehicle was recovered so quickly, and with such minor damage.