LoJack System Helps CMATT Auto Theft Task Force Recover a Stolen Subaru Impreza
- October 31, 2017
- recovery stories
The owners of a car dealership discovered, to their immense alarm, that their storage lot had been broken into and fourteen vehicles they had purchased at auction had been stolen in one-night.
However, one of these vehicles, a 2005 Subaru Impreza, had been installed with a LoJack in 2008 at the request of a previous private owner of the car. Even though this customer had since sold the Subaru the LoJack unit remained quietly dormant and viable to be activated upon entry of the vehicle information by law enforcement as stolen. And that’s just what happened. When an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s deputy took the massive auto theft report from the dealership and had the Vehicle Identification Number to the Subaru entered as stolen the LoJack® System was automatically activated and began broadcasting its silent signal to law enforcement.
In the morning officers with the Aurora Police Department in route to an emergency and an Arvada Police Department detective picked up the silent LoJack signal with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) that are installed in patrol vehicles and aircraft. A short time later a detective with the Aurora PD & CMATT Auto Theft Task Force tracked the stolen Impreza with his PTC to the parking lot of a large apartment complex.
Due to the robust personnel resources, organizational and support logistics of the CMATT a physical and electronic surveillance was immediately initiated. Over the next several days all but two of the stolen vehicles from the dealership were recovered by investigators, plus one additional truck that had been stolen from Larimer County. That truck was an RMT Off-Road 2017 Chevrolet Silverado Z-71 valued at over $53,000. In addition six suspects engaged in this criminal enterprise were arrested and others implicated and are still being sought by police.
CMATT investigators discovered that most of the participants were gang members who’s current and past crimes included; possession of thousands of counterfeit $50 and $100 dollar bills, possession of firearms by previous offenders, hit and run traffic collisions, human trafficking, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and one subject wanted on a no-bond warrant for racketeering.
Collateral recoveries amounted to $110,000. This criminal enterprise is still under investigation by CMATT.
The LoJack® System was installed in the Subaru Impreza nine-years ago at Colorado Autotrek Inc. in Littleton, Colorado.