Juvenile Suspect Booked for Theft of Honda Civic in Los Angeles
- February 7, 2012
- recovery stories
On the morning of January 21, 2012, officers from the LAPD Hollenbeck Division were on patrol when they began to receive a silent LoJack signal on the LoJack Police Tracking Computer installed in their patrol vehicle. When they queried the LoJack code with the national stolen vehicle database, they were informed that the signal was coming from a 2003 Honda Civic reported stolen seven minutes earlier to the Glendale Police Department.
Following the computer cues, the officers tracked the signal into Central Division and caught a red light at the intersection of Alpine and Main Streets. There, they located the stolen Honda, a few cars ahead of their patrol vehicle. The ground officers, along with an air suport helicopter, began to follow the vehicle. When sufficient back-up units arrived, the officers conducted a felony traffic stop at Broadway and Bernard Streets. Three suspects were detained without further incident.
The field investigation revealed that the passengers had no knowledge the vehicle was stolen and were released. The driver, a juvenile, was booked and cited to return to Juvenile Hall; he was later released to his parent. The undamaged vehicle was stored and later released to the owner, who admitted that she had left the keys in the ignition while she made a trip back inside her home to retrieve an article.
The owner of this vehicle had the LoJack Vehicle Recovery System installed at Miller Honda in April, 2003.