LoJack Helps Miami-Dade Police Recover “Stolen” Mercedes Benz SUV
- March 31, 2013
- recovery stories
On Friday morning, January 11, 2013, the owner of a 2006 Black Mercedes-Benz R-500 SUV contacted the Miami-Dade Police Department to report that their vehicle was stolen from their Doral home. The responding officer prepared a stolen vehicle report and theft affidavit and had the vehicle’s information entered into the state and federal crime computers. This routine police procedure automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Mercedes.
Later that morning, a Hialeah Police Department officer picked up the silent LoJack homing signal from the stolen SUV on their on-board LoJack Police Tracking Computer (PTC). The officer verified the theft information by having their dispatcher query the Reply Code that appeared on their PTC display. They began tracking the stolen vehicle by following the directional and audible cues on their PTC’s screen. The officer, along with their backup, located the vehicle’s signal emanating from a warehouse in the 7800 block of West 2nd Court in Hialeah. The auto theft unit responded to the scene and began to prepare a search warrant for the premises. After several hours, the owner of the vehicle was contacted. He stated that the whole incident was a misunderstanding and that his cousin had taken the vehicle without him knowing about it. The owner responded to the scene, opened the warehouse where the detectives verified that the vehicle was located. The detectives recovered the vehicle, released it to the owner, and removed it from federal and state crime computer systems.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Mercedes-Benz R-500 sport utility vehicle on March 22, 2006 at Mercedes Benz of Laguna Niguel in Laguna Niguel, California and has been protecting it ever since.