LoJack® System Helps Orange County Sheriff’s Department Recover Stolen Mercedes C300
- August 28, 2015
- recovery stories
The owners of a 2009 Mercedes C300 contacted the Fountain Valley Police Department to report their vehicle was stolen.
The Fountain Valley 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 Mercedes.
A short while later Orange County Sheriff’s Department Airship Duke 1 picked up the silent LoJack signal from the stolen Mercedes with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) that are installed in patrol vehicles and aircraft. Following the directional and audible cues from the PTC, Duke 1 tracked the Mercedes to the area of the 5 Freeway and Cristianitos in San Clemente. Duke 1 broadcast this information to OCSD patrol units in the area. A patrol deputy spotted the stolen Mercedes as it exited a gas station and then entered onto the southbound 5 Freeway. When assisting patrol units arrived the Mercedes was stopped and the driver and sole occupant was detained. The driver was arrested and transported to the OCSD San Clemente substation. At the station the driver was interviewed. The driver claimed he was unaware the Mercedes was stolen. He told the deputies he was called by a female to pick up the Mercedes in Oceanside and would be given a ride to the Mercedes by a subject he never met prior. The key for the Mercedes was to be under the driver floor mat. He was then told to drive the Mercedes to specific place in San Clemente and leave the vehicle. The driver claimed he did that but a half hour later he returned to the Mercedes to run errands. This was when he was stopped by the OCSD deputies. During a search of the stolen Mercedes the deputies located two cellular phones. One of them was a grey flip phone. The driver claimed the phone was not his but he did use it to text a message. The message indicated that the driver knew the Mercedes was stolen.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Mercedes C300 in March 2009 by Fletcher Jones Mercedes in Las Vegas, Nevada.