The LoJack® System Helps California Highway Patrol Auto Theft Unit Recover Stolen John Deere Backhoe
- August 20, 2013
- recovery stories
The John Deere backhoe in this case was stolen from a construction site and recovered several hundred miles away with all its identifying numbers and decals removed and replaced. This tactic could have fooled anyone merely looking at the machine, but changing the appearance does not affect the LoJack® system. The backhoe was still recovered and returned to its owners.
On July 27th, 2013, the site’s Supervisor contacted the Sacramento Police Department to report the crime. Sacramento PD verified the theft and entered the vehicle information into the state and federal crime computers. This automatically activated the LoJack unit concealed in the John Deere Backhoe, which was installed at a large national equipment rental company.
A short time later, an Auto Theft Investigator from California Highway Patrol picked up the homing signals from backhoe on the LoJack tracking computer installed in his undercover vehicle. The investigator tracked the vehicle to a commercial storage yard in Calexico. He noticed that all company identification decals and identification plates were removed from the machine and replaced with different ones. The company was very happy to have the John Deere returned to their site. The case remains under investigation.
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