How can a cell phone help catch a car thief? The Kansas City Star gives this recent example from nearby Overland Park, Ks. John Webb left his sport utility vehicle running with an "elaborate" cell phone on the seat while he went inside a home to get his son. Within seconds, someone had driven away with the SUV.
Quickly his son, 15, told him, "Log on, you’ve got the tools to track that." An application on his cell phone allowed him to use GPS to track the phone. So Webb directed police in a three-hour chase. The thieves abandoned the SUV but took the cell phone. Webb then tracked the phone and alerted police, who converged on a parked, stolen Lexus. Webb knew that through his computer he could set off a loud alarm on his phone. “The officer said the girl was in the back seat just hammering on that cell phone trying to make it stop,” Webb said. Her two companions were arrested.
Posted by John Webb
Friday, July 02, 2010 01:18
The thief was just sentenced to 5 years federal prison… 3 years post release supervision. Justice!
Posted by John
Friday, April 02, 2010 09:48
One of the advantages of having a high end cellphones nowadays. Also, great job for the son to immediately think of such idea on how to track their SUV.
Unlucky day for these thieves!
Posted by reen
Monday, March 15, 2010 10:53
Wow, nicely done!! Glad you could track and retrieve your belongings – that happens so rarely!
Posted by John Webb
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 08:14
It was a T-Mobile MyTouch running Google’s Android OS. The application that was tracking them was Mobile Defense.