LoJack Helps Boynton Beach Police Recover Stolen Toyota Camry, 2 Arrested for Theft, Drugs, Child Neglect
- March 31, 2013
- recovery stories
On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, the owner of a 2006 Toyota Camry 4-door sedan contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to report that their vehicle was stolen. The owner explained to the reporting officer that her son was loaned the car to go to court on December 7, 2012. The son was taken into custody, but had left the keys to the car under the floor mat in the car. When the mother went looking for the car in the parking lot next to the court, it could not be located, so she was reporting the car stolen. The responding officer prepared a stolen vehicle report and theft affidavit and had the vehicle’s information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine police procedure automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Toyota Camry.
Later that day, a Boynton Beach Police Department officer picked up the silent LoJack homing signal from the stolen Toyota Camry on their on-board LoJack Police Tracking computer (PTC). Following the directional and audible cues on their PTC’s screen, the officer, along with backup of approximately two dozen police officers, located the vehicle in a Boynton Beach department store parking lot.
The officer performed a “felony stop” on the vehicle and discovered a female behind the wheel with what turned out to be marijuana in her wallet, her 3 children in the back without seat belts, and her boyfriend with a loaded .45 caliber handgun on his hip. When police interviewed the driver of the stolen vehicle, she told them she had borrowed the car from a friend, but she couldn’t tell officers anything about her friend, including the friend’s phone number or address. The driver was then arrested and charged with grand theft auto, possession of marijuana and child neglect. The boyfriend stated in an interview that he didn’t recognize the car his girlfriend was driving and didn’t ask where it came from when she picked him up. He was charged with armed trespassing within a conveyance — the stolen car. Both the driver and her boyfriend are currently in jail and the children are with their father. The vehicle was recovered, towed to the police impound yard for safekeeping, and removed from federal and state crime computer systems.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Toyota Camry 4-door sedan on April 18, 2006 at Delray Toyota /Kia in Delray Beach, Florida, and has been protecting it ever since.