LoJack Helps Florida Highway Patrol Recover Stolen Acura TSX, Suspect Arrested
- December 10, 2012
- recovery stories
On Friday morning, November 9, 2012, the owner of a 2011 Acura TSX sedan contacted the Miami-Dade Police Department to report that her vehicle was stolen from her home in Miami Lakes, Florida. The owner advised that she last saw her car around 7:30PM on the previous night, and that morning, she discovered her car keys, “friend” and her vehicle missing.
The responding officer prepared a stolen vehicle report and theft affidavit and had the Acura’s information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine police procedure automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Acura.
A short while later, a trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol picked up the silent LoJack homing signal from the stolen sedan on their on-board LoJack Police Tracking computer (PTC). Following the directional and audible cues on their PTC’s screen, the trooper, along with backup, located the vehicle in a strip shopping center in the 2000 block of N.W. 107th Avenue, Doral, Florida.
There, they performed a “felony stop” on the vehicle, taking the driver into custody. The driver, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was ultimately arrested for grand theft auto and possession of a controlled substance, which was found in his pocket. The vehicle appeared to have been involved in an accident. After being read his Miranda Rights from an issued card, the driver admitted to being involved in a hit & run accident the night before (11/8/12). The vehicle was recovered, towed to the police impound yard for safekeeping, and removed from federal and state crime computer systems.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Acura TSX sedan on March 31, 2011 at Rick Case Acura in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has been protecting it ever since.