LoJack® System Helps Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Recover Stolen International 4200 Series Dump Truck
- June 22, 2015
- recovery stories
The owners, a Charlotte independent rental company, of a 2006 International 4200 Series dump truck contacted the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to report that their vehicle was stolen from a construction site off Valleydale Road during the weekend. The dump truck had been rented to a contractor for more than 60 days and was last secured on the site the previous Friday evening at the end of the work day. Workers returned to the job site on Monday morning to discover the dump truck missing. No suspect or witness to the crime was known.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg 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 International dump truck.
In less than 30 minutes of the stolen vehicle entry, officers from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s aviation unit was tracking the silent LoJack signal from the stolen International dump truck 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 aviation unit tracked the dump truck to an area between I-77 and I-85 off Statesville Road. Ground units were directed to the dead end of a street where the dump truck was sitting. The dump truck’s ignition had been broken and straight wired to allow starting and movement of the truck. A few hundred feet through the dead end’s wooded area was another construction site. Officers believe someone may have staged the dump truck there to be used on that job.
The LoJack® System was installed in the International 4200 Series dump truck in April 2007 as a result of Commercial Sales in Arizona.