LoJack® System Helps Harnett County Sheriff’s Office Recover a Stolen Mercedes E350
- February 25, 2015
- recovery stories
The owners of a 2009 Mercedes E350 contacted the Winston Salem Police Department to report that their vehicle was stolen. The owners reported the theft occurred during the night from their apartment complex parking lot. No suspect or direction of travel was known at the time of theft reporting.
The Winston Salem PD verified the theft and entered the vehicle information into the state and federal crime computers which automatically activated the LoJack® System concealed in the Mercedes.
Prior to midnight, a deputy of the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office in Lillington, North Carolina, was doing a person transport into Fayetteville, North Carolina, via NC 87. As the patrol unit crossed from Harnett County into Spring Lake, NC, the deputy’s patrol unit picked up the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Mercedes with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) that are installed in patrol vehicles and aircraft. Following the directional and audible cues from the PTC, the deputy tracked the Mercedes into a single family sub division and onto Redfox Road. The Mercedes was found sitting in front of a residence unoccupied. Contact was made with the property owner and consent was received to view the Mercedes. The possessor of the reported stolen Mercedes alleged he had purchased the vehicle without yet receiving a title from a person in the process of making a mechanic’s lien on the vehicle. (Such a lien is often given as a result of a court action for the cost of service and/or parts an individual/company has not been paid while retaining possession of the vehicle.)
The Mercedes was towed and stored by Harnett County Sheriff’s Office until proper ownership could be determined and an investigation is completed into the theft and possession of stolen property.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Mercedes at Mercedes Benz in Fairfield, Connecticut.