San Francisco Officers Track Stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee and Bust Thieves Inside for Narcotics
- May 15, 2012
- recovery stories
On April 16, 2012, the owner of a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee left his car idling for a moment while he went into a convenience store. When he returned to the vehicle minutes later, he discovered it missing and called the San Francisco Police Department to report it stolen.
San Francisco officers completed a stolen vehicle report and had the Jeep’s information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine police action automatically activated the hidden LoJack transponder concealed in the Jeep. Neither the owner nor law enforcement agents had to take any further action to activate the LoJack tracking system, as LoJack’s interface with the police is both seamless and instantaneous.
A short while later, officers with the San Francisco Police Department picked up the Jeep’s silent LoJack signal on the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) installed in their vehicles. Following the directional cues from the PTC, the officers tracked the vehicle as it traveled around San Francisco and finally converged upon it, stopped at an intersection in the Bay View area of the city. Officers arrested both the driver and passenger as they were in the midst of a narcotics transaction. The undamaged Jeep was impounded for safekeeping and the owner notified of its recovery.
Further investigation revealed that the suspects had removed the Jeep’s license plates in an attempt to avoid detection.
This is the second time in two years that the Jeep has been stolen and recovered using the LoJack Vehicle Recovery System that was installed in November of 2004 in Colma, CA.