Owner of Kia Sportage Arrested by Miami-Dade Police for Filing False Police Report of Vehicle Theft
- December 8, 2012
- recovery stories
On Monday, November 5, 2012, the owner of a 2011 Kia Sportage sport utility vehicle responded to the Miami-Dade Police Department’s South District station to report that her vehicle was stolen. She stated to the officer that the vehicle had been missing from her home since July and that she had thought that the finance company had repossessed it. When the finance company informed the owner that they did not have the vehicle, she went to the police station to report the vehicle stolen.
The reporting officer prepared a stolen vehicle report, verified the theft and had the Kia’s information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine police procedure automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Kia Sportage.
A short while later, an auto theft detective with the Miami-Dade Police Department picked up the silent LoJack homing signal from the stolen Kia on their on-board LoJack Police Tracking Computer (PTC). Following the directional and audible cues on their PTC’s screen, the officer, along with backup, located the vehicle in the yard of a house in the 19600 block of Old Cutler Road. The detective spoke with the occupant of the house, who stated that her friend had left the vehicle at her home about four weeks ago. The vehicle was recovered in good condition, towed to the police impound yard for safekeeping, and removed from federal and state crime computer systems.
One week later, on November 13, 2012, the detective met with the owner of the Kia at the Miami-Dade Police Department’s South District Station. The detective advised the owner that she was under arrest. After being read her Miranda rights, the owner admitted that she hid the vehicle to avoid it from being repossessed and that she had planned to sell it to get the money. At that point, the owner was arrested and charged for filing a false police report.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Kia Sportage sport utility vehicle on May 2, 2011 at Kendall Kia in Miami, Florida and has been protecting it ever since.