Crimefighting With GPS Technology

Jun 1, 2008 12:00 PM

According to the Insurance Services Office (ISO), as little as 10-15 percent of stolen equipment is ever recovered. GPS technology can solve this costly issue for business owners. Contigo, Santa Monica, Calif., a provider of turn-key GPS solutions for asset tracking, fleet management and personal safety, has enabled recovery of many stolen goods and the capture of theft rings.

In one instance, a theft ring stole numerous air conditioning cores, typically worth $3,000. The thieves were unaware that a tracking beacon was concealed in the AC units, causing an automated theft notification to trigger once they were tampered with. Contigo's 8200 GPS beacon uses gpsOne GPS technology from Qualcomm, San Diego, to allow the device to be located indoors, where standalone GPS typically fails. The unsuspecting thieves were tracked hundreds of miles in Texas and were confronted by police who had fixed on their location based on the GPS beacon coupled with Contigo's software platform. The thieves had stolen 40 air conditioner coils, numerous appliances and other building supplies.

According to Contigo President and CEO John Tedesco, theft from construction sites costs builders $1 billion per year. After installing a concealed tracking device inside a microwave oven at a new home construction site, a second theft ring was exposed. When police were notified of the theft, the truck, containing the microwave and $5,000 more in stolen equipment, was tracked from Texas to Illinois. Illinois police officers were dispatched, and the merchandise was recovered.

Thieves broke into another Texas-based home construction site, making off with a stove and microwave oven, as well as a refrigerator that concealed a GPS beacon. The client was immediately alerted of the theft via an automated SMS notification. Contigo's Web-based system was then used to track the location of the stolen property over the course of the alarm condition. After narrowing down the location, police moved in, and the missing property was discovered, along with a full list of potential buyers and the six thieves. The goods were recovered and returned to the client, and the thieves were arrested.

Tedesco says that Contigo's system was designed to combat the issue. “We are pleased that the growing number of recoveries being made with our GPS system is giving builders more peace of mind and a true return on their investment,” he says.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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