LoJack® System Helps Philadelphia Police Department Recover Stolen Commercial Air Compressor
- November 16, 2015
- recovery stories
A construction crew assigned to a site in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, arrived for work and was unable to locate a Sullivan Air Compressor. Inquiries and a search of the construction site revealed that the equipment had been stolen. The crew notified the Pennsauken Police Department and an officer was dispatched to the scene. The Pennsauken 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 Compressor.
A short while later an alert uniformed Philadelphia Police Department officer picked up the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Sullivan air compressor 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 officer tracked the signal to the area of Chatham Street in the eastern section of Philadelphia. The PTC registered full signal strength and was pointing to a compressor, painted white, and connected to a parked truck. The officer had received information from the Philadelphia Police Radio that the stolen compressor was orange. The officer exited the patrol vehicle and examined the compressor determining that it had recently been painted. A detective assigned to the Philadelphia Police Major Crimes Auto Squad was in the area conducting an unrelated investigation and monitoring police radio transmissions. The detective arrived at the officer’s location in an effort to provide assistance. The highly experienced detective examined the compressor and discovered that the vehicle identification number had been removed from the equipment. Through investigation and interviews, the detective determined that this was in fact the Sullivan air compressor stolen in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Further investigation revealed the identity of the owner of the truck that was connected to the compressor. The detective confiscated both vehicles and arranged for them to be taken to Police Major Crimes HQ. The investigation continues by the Philadelphia Police Major Crimes Auto Squad and arrest(s) are anticipated in the near future.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Sullivan Commercial Air Compressor in January 2011 at Cherry Valley Tractor Sales in Marlton, New Jersey.