LoJack® System Helps Philadelphia Pennsylvania Police and Mansfield Township New Jersey Police Departments Recover Stolen Tractor and Trailer
- January 21, 2016
- recovery stories
The manager of a dealership in Manheim Township Pennsylvania received information from other employees that a 2014 Cottrell auto carrier trailer attached to a 2014 Freightliner Tractor was missing and apparently stolen from the dealership property. The manager surveyed the area for the vehicle and then checked the tape from the surveillance camera only to discover that the view of the camera had been blocked. The dealership manager called 911 and Manheim Township dispatched a uniformed officer to investigate. The officer quickly arrived on location, interviewed the principals and surveyed the area for the subject vehicle. When the vehicle could not be located, the officer took the report to the Manheim PD Headquarters and arranged for the vehicle information to be entered into the state and federal crime computers, which automatically activated the LoJack® System concealed in the tractor and the trailer as both were LoJack equipped.
A short while later members of the elite Philadelphia Police Department Aviation Unit lifted off from their police hanger and picked up the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Cottrell trailer 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 highly trained aviation officers tracked the signal to a trucking yard in the northeast section of Philadelphia. The officer reduced the altitude of the police helicopter and observed the trailer parked in a dark and desolate area of the yard. The aviation officers directed uniformed officers and Major Crimes Auto Squad investigators to the scene and resumed their patrol. Moments later while patrolling close to the Delaware River, the aviation officers again reported that the PTC in the police airship had activated. The officers determined that this signal was assigned to the tractor which was reported stolen with the now recovered trailer. The aviation officers tracked the LoJack signal to the area of Route 68 in Mansfield Township, New Jersey. Again, following the signal the aviation officers continued to reduce the altitude of the airship and subsequently observed the stolen Freightliner parked in a trucking facility yard. The aviation officers used their multi band police radio to contact police in Mansfield, New Jersey, and advise them of their situation. The Philadelphia PD Airship hovered close by until uniformed police arrived and positively identified the Freightliner stolen in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania.
This theft remains under a joint investigation conducted by the Philadelphia PD Major Crimes Auto Squad, Manheim PD (Pennsylvania), Lancaster County Auto Theft Task Force and New Jersey Police.
The LoJack® System was installed through a commercial installation in 2015.