LoJack® System Helps Denver Police Department Recover Stolen Caterpillar Skid Steer Loader
- November 19, 2015
- recovery stories
The owner of a Caterpillar Skid Steer loader was up at 2 O’clock AM during a blizzard to begin work at clearing snow from his various clients’ parking lots. To his great alarm his loader had been stolen during the last several hours from the parking lot where he had it parked. He immediately contacted the Aurora Police Department and reported the theft.
A police officer verified the theft and entered the vehicle information into the state and federal crime computers. This routine NCIC entry automatically activated the LoJack® System concealed in the Caterpillar.
Just minutes later a police officer with the Denver Police Department on routine patrol picked up the silent LoJack signal from the stolen loader with the LoJack Police Tracking Computer (PTC) in his patrol car. PTC’s are installed in patrol vehicles and aircraft at no cost to the police agency for this purpose. Following the directional and audible cues from the PTC, the officer tracked the skid steer loader to a parking lot near 49th and Oakland, 12-miles away from the theft location.
What the officer saw on his arrival was a tow truck driver in the process of loading the skid steer onto a truck. The driver was contacted and said that “a friend” had asked him to pick up this loader and move it to another location. The “friend” story didn’t pan out and the man was arrested.
The owner was contacted by the Denver PD officer and he said “DPD was really good.” They recovered his $21,000 equipment promptly and called him to the scene and released the loader to him saving him more lost time from work and the expense of the impound.
He said the thief had been using the loader to clear parking lots of snow, the same job that he had planned to use the equipment for. The owner said this was a huge deal for them to get their equipment back so quickly and undamaged. He now wants to consult with LoJack Commercial Sales to see about protecting his other equipment with LoJack.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Caterpillar skid steer several years earlier at the request of a LoJack commercial customer.