NYPD Officers Recover Toyota Venza Stolen by Career Criminal with 20+ Arrests
- April 21, 2012
- recovery stories
In the early morning hours of March 22, 2012, the son of the owner of a 2010 Toyota Venza left the vehicle running unattended on the street in the Bronx for one minute. During this time, an unknown person climbed into the vehicle and drove away with it. The owner immediately notified the New York Police Department’s 47th Precinct of the theft.
NYPD officers responded, completed a stolen vehicle report and had the Toyota’s information entered into the state and federal crime computer systems. This routine police action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Toyota. Neither the owners nor law enforcement agents had to do anything else to activate the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with law enforcement is both seamless and instantaneous.
Just 20 minutes later, officers assigned to the Bronx Auto Larceny Unit picked up the Toyota’s silent LoJack signal on the Police Tracking Computers (PTCs) installed in their patrol vehicles. Following the directional and signal strength cues on the PTCs, the officers tracked the stolen Toyota to the 400 block of White Plains Road. There, they located the stolen Toyota, parked with two occupants inside. Officers surrounded the vehicle and placed both suspects under arrest. Investigation revealed that the driver is a career criminal with more than twenty arrests for drugs and other charges.
The Toyota was impounded as arrest evidence and was eventually released to an extremely happy owner. The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Toyota on May 5, 2010 in Jersey City, NJ.