Arizona Officers Quickly Locate Stolen Ford Pickup, Parked with Suspect in Driver's Seat
- May 25, 2012
- recovery stories
On March 9, 2012, a 2004 Ford F250 pickup truck was stolen from the parking lot of a restaurant in the 600 block of North 44th Street in Phoenix while the owner dined inside. When the owner returned for the vehicle, he discovered it missing and immediately contacted the Phoenix Police Department to report the theft.
Phoenix Police completed a stolen vehicle report and had the Ford’s information entered into the state and federal crime computer systems. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the pickup truck. Neither the owners nor law enforcement had to do anything else to activate the LoJack Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with the police is both seamless and instantaneous.
Less than an hour later, officers with the Glendale Police Department began to pick up the Ford’s silent LoJack homing signal on the Police Tracking Computers (PTCs) installed in their patrol vehicles. Following the directional and signal strength cues on their PTCs, officers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety tracked the stolen Ford F250 to an apartment complex in the 9300 block of West McDowell Road, just off of I-10. When officers approached the Ford, which looked to be abandoned, a suspect suddenly sat up in the driver’s seat. The suspect was quickly and safely taken into custody without incident.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Ford pickup at the owners request in December 2003.