Posted on 09/25/2007 12:18:12 PM PDT by decimon
INDIANAPOLIS -- After five burglaries at his store this summer, Chris Rowland decided to plant Global Positioning System devices in some of his merchandise.
The decision paid off with burglary No. 6.
Someone broke into the Woodcraft store in the Castleton area on Friday morning and stole woodworking tools. Rowland had placed GPS devices in some of the packaging. Click here to find out more!
"The GPS system, we've wired it so that it phones my cell phone and tells me that it's on the move, and we can actually track it," Rowland told 6News' Jack Rinehart.
The devices informed Rowland that the stolen items were at an apartment complex less than half a mile from his store. Later, the devices showed the merchandise had been moved to a house in Lawrence.
Rowland called police, who recovered the merchandise. Police said they're looking for Jeffrey Burton, who they named a suspect in all six burglaries.
Rowland said he was motivated to use the GPS devices after someone told him that he'd never catch whoever was burglarizing his store.
"The police obviously don't have resources to do this for me, so I decided I was going to catch the guy," Rowland said.
Burton, 46, also is wanted on burglary charges in Tennessee. Anyone with information on his whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.
doesn’t this envade the privacy of the perp?
ACLU will be right on it
GPS trackers can be used for all sorts of activities....
It's made stalking a "couch potato" activity, for example.
I guess so. The one had some good range if he could track the guy.
just remove them from the gene pool
So won’t some ACLU-type Freepers
It's just a programmable cell phone with integral GPS.
It works wherever there is cell coverage.
I once worked for a place that had an idea of placing them in police cruisers. We were speculating on how valuable they could be, when the crack was made,
"Hey Chief! Murphy is at YOUR house!"
‘It’s made stalking a “couch potato” activity, for example.’
Actually I was thinking it made a stakeout for PI’s much easier, and safer.
RFID will also make shoplifting unprofitable across the board.
GPS trackers can be used for all sorts of activities....
I once worked for a place that had an idea of placing them in police cruisers. We were speculating on how valuable they could be, when the crack was made,
“Hey Chief! Murphy is at YOUR house!”
(chuckle)
I went throught he academy, and one of our guest instructors was a complete nutcase police chief. He was so very very proud they put ‘black boxes’ in the squad cars, so he could note if they were speeding when trying to catch....speeders. I swear this is true, he was much more interested in keeping oh so close tabs on his own officers, rather than dealing with the crime rates in his jurisdiction. He also was given to wondering why he couldn’t keep anyone on the force for more than a couple of years.....(eyes rolling)
Hitting the same place six times doesn't seem very smart.
That's a great idea! In a small town like where I live, I could place one of those things up under each of the less than 10 patrol cars and see where all of them are and any given time. I would know when and where I can drive fast without being caught. ;^)
Security is whack-a-mole. Thieves will change the game somehow, possibly turning RFID itself to their advantage.
Thieves make me sick.
GPS could just as easily be used on innocent victims.
Some stalker could tag a pretty girl’s car and follow her everywhere. Spouses already do that quite a bit to catch cheating.
In this case it’s a cracker-tracker.
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