Estranged Friend Steals Toyota Corolla During Confrontation — Arrested Minutes Later
- May 10, 2012
- recovery stories
On April 13, 2012, the owner of a 2003 Toyota Corolla had an argument with an estranged friend; following the confrontation, the friend took a set of keys from the owner and stole the vehicle. When the owner. When the owner discovered the vehicle stolen that afternoon, she immediately notified the Shawangunk Town Police Department, located in Orange County, NY.
Shawangunk officers completed a stolen vehicle report and had the Toyota’s information entered into the state and federal crime computer databases. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the vehicle. Neither the owners nor law enforcement agents had to do anything else to activate the LoJack Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with the police is both seamless and instantaneous.
Just five minutes later, deputies assigned to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department picked up the Toyota’s silent LoJack homing signal on their police cruiser’s LoJack Police Tracking Computer. Following the directional signal cues on the tracking computer, the deputies tracked the Toyota into Middletown, NY, where they located the stolen vehicle with one occupant inside. The deputies immediately surrounded the Toyota and placed the suspect under arrest. The undamaged vehicle was impounded as arrest evidence and eventually released back to an extremely grateful owner.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Toyota Corolla on March 28, 2003 in Jackson Heights, NY.