LoJack® System Helps Philadelphia Police Department Recover Stolen Case Backhoe
- February 2, 2016
- recovery stories
Construction company employees arrived on a construction site in south Philadelphia to discover that a Case backhoe was no longer on location. The company owner called 911 and the Philadelphia Police Department Radio dispatched a uniformed officer to investigate the incident. The officer quickly arrived on location, interviewed the principals and then surveyed the area for the stolen Case backhoe. When the officer could not locate the backhoe, a stolen vehicle report was prepared and taken to Philadelphia PD 17th District HQ. The police operations room crew entered the vehicle information into the state and federal crime computers which automatically activated the LoJack® System concealed in the Case backhoe.
A few minutes after the activation signal to the backhoe, the elite members of the Philadelphia PD Aviation Unit reported to Police Radio that they were picking up a LoJack signal from the stolen Case backhoe with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) that are installed in Philadelphia PD Aircraft. Following the directional and audible cues from the PTC, the aviation officers tracked the signal to the area of Oregon Avenue in south Philadelphia. The aviation officers began to reduce the altitude of the aircraft and subsequently observed a Case backhoe secreted behind a building in a shopping center. The Philadelphia PD Radio was advised of the situation and the police airship hovered close by until a marked police patrol vehicle came to the scene and an officer investigated the backhoe. The uniform officer on the ground checked the backhoe’s product identification number and reported that this was in fact the backhoe stolen earlier in the day.
The Philadelphia PD made the proper notifications and arrangements were made to have the construction company secure their Case machine.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Case Backhoe in March 2003 as a commercial installation.