NYPD Recover Stolen Smart Fortwo, Undamaged — No Suspects Found During Surveillance
- April 21, 2012
- recovery stories
On the evening of March 21, 2012, the owner of a 2009 Smart Fortwo parked and locked his vehicle on the street where he lives in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. In the early morning hours of March 22, he heard noises outside and looked out of the window to see his car being driven away. The owner immediately called the New York Police Department’s 61st Precinct to report the theft.
NYPD officers responded and completed a stolen vehicle report, and had the information about the stolen Smart vehicle entered into the state and federal crime computer databases. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed within the vehicle. Neither the owner nor law enforcement agents had to take any further action to activate the LoJack Stolen Vehicle System, as LoJack’s interface with the police is both seamless and instantaneous.
A short while later, the NYPD’s 61st Precinct’s Anti Crime Unit began to pick up the Smart vehicle’s LoJack signal on the Police Tracking Computers (PTC) installed in their patrol vehicles. Following the directional and signal strength cues on the PTC’s display, the officers tracked the vehicle through the Brooklyn South area and into the confines the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. There, they located the vehicle, parked on a residential street. The officers set up a brief surveillance on the vehicle, but when the thieves failed to return for it, they took the vehicle into custody.
The Smart Fortwo was recovered with no damage, and returned to the grateful owner.