PRESS RELEASES
LoJack Silent Tracking Device Credited with Rapid Recovery of Valuable Construction Equipment
Dedham, MA, January 5 - Trafficking valuable construction equipment has become a lucrative and growing business for thieves around the country. Their selections range from stolen generators to bull dozers that, the FBI reports, fetch a high resale price on the open and black market.
Yet, despite criminals ever growing appetite for stolen construction equipment of all shapes and sizes, police have been utilizing a hidden weapon called LoJack that time and again brings police and criminal eye to eye.
Recently, Arizona police in Chandler, Mesa and Phoenix, joined forces by utilizing the LoJack stolen vehicle recovery system to recover a valuable stolen $15,000 portable diesel generator. Owned by Qwest Wireless, LLC, owned by Qwest Communications International, a company recognized for its leadership role in broadband Internet-based data, voice and image communications for businesses and consumers, the generator was reported missing to police and then discovered by detectives in only 42 minutes, after the three forces tracked the hidden LoJack signal that the generator was transmitting.
When Qwest discovered that the generator was missing, they immediately advised Mesa Police who then entered the theft data into the Arizona Criminal Information Computer. This activated the LoJack stolen vehicle recovery system that had been hidden in Qwest’s stolen generator.
Within minutes, a police detective on patrol in nearby Chandler, Arizona, picked up the LoJack tracking signal. Following the signal, the detective was led to the back yard of a residential property. After radioing in to Phoenix Police Auto Theft for back-up, Phoenix PD auto theft squad members arrived on the scene and immediately sought and were granted a search warrant. Within 42 minutes after the theft was reported to police, detectives had entered the premises and found the thief along with Qwest’s stolen generator in the garage.
Robert Heup of Qwest credits the LoJack device, along with the quick action of the Mesa, Chandler and Phoenix Police Departments with the return of his company’s valuable equipment. "We were very pleased that the LoJack device helped to get our generator back to us so quickly and that the police did such a fine job."
In commenting on the increasing problem of construction and vehicle theft throughout the United States, Joseph F. Abely, president of LoJack noted that "police in cities, counties and state agencies equipped with LoJack tracking devices have a 90% success rate in locating stolen vehicles equipped with LoJack."
LoJack systems are in operation under licensing agreements in the following international locations: Argentina, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Hong Kong, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Russia, Slovak Republics, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. Systems are planned for installation in the near future in: Belize, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay.
LoJack networks are now installed in states and major metropolitan areas in which approximately two-thirds of the nation's population resides: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia.
Contact:
Joseph F. Abely, President
(781) 326-4700
Jane Bartnett
Bartnett Communications, Inc.
(516) 897-9017 |