Boston Police Recover Stolen Oldsmobile Alero Less than 2 Hours After Theft Report
- February 22, 2012
- recovery stories
On the morning of January 11, 2012, the owner of a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero parked her vehicle outside of a business on Washington Street in Dorchester, MA. When the owner of the Oldsmobile returned a short while later, she found the vehicle missing and immediately reported the theft to the Boston Police Department.
Boston Police filed a stolen vehicle report and relayed the information to the department’s computer operator, who entered the Oldsmobile’s VIN into the state and federal crime databases. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder hidden in the Oldsmobile, causing it to begin transmitting a silent homing signal.
A short while later, officers from the Boston Police Department and members of the Governor’s Auto Theft Strike Force began picking up the silent LoJack signal on Police Tracking Computers installed in their patrol vehicles. One of the troopers began to receive a very strong signal in the area of Washington Street, near Codman Square. Following the computer prompts, he successfully tracked and quickly located the unoccupied and undamaged Oldsmobile, parked on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester. The trooper set up a brief surveillance the vehicle, but when suspect(s) failed to return to the car, he had the vehicle towed from the scene for safekeeping until the owner could be notified of its safe recovery.
The recovery took 104 minutes from the time it was entered into the stolen vehicle database.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Oldsmobile Alero at the owner’s request on October 15, 2002.