LoJack System Helps Colorado State University Police Department and Colorado State Patrol BATTLE-ATTF Recover Stolen Ford F350
- December 27, 2017
- recovery stories
The owners of an auto auction discovered that a Ford F350 had been stolen from their property. The exact date of the disappearance was not certain but could have been many days earlier. A police officer verified the theft and had the vehicle information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine action on the part of law enforcement automatically activated the LoJack® System concealed in the Ford truck.
Twelve minutes later officers with the Colorado State University Police Department in Fort Collins picked up the silent LoJack signal coming from the stolen Ford with the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTCs) that are installed in patrol vehicles and aircraft.
Following the directional and audible cues from the PTCs, these officers tracked and located the truck and found it to be unoccupied. The truck was displaying fictitious license plates, a common method used by thieves to avoid detection from License Plate Readers and officer’s observations.
Stolen Ford F350 Recovered Suspects Arrested
The BATTLE-North ATTF responded and a covert surveillance of the truck was initiated. That surveillance paid off when suspects returned to the truck. The Ford later was recovered and the suspects arrested in Windsor, Colorado, near I-25 and Colorado Highway 392. The suspects had been on a shoplifting spree and numerous items that were most likely stolen were recovered in the truck. One of the suspects was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant and both had history of illegal drug-use.
The Ford F350 was recovered undamaged.
The LoJack® System had been installed in the Ford F350 ten-years earlier at Star Lincoln Mercury in Glendale, California, at the request of the first owner of the truck.