Stolen car found using cheap Trademe GPS tracker

[iOnic]

The other alarm thread reminded me of this. Some of you might have seen this. Guy had his car stolen and his generic Trademe GPS tracker located it so he gave the cops the address then activated the horn remotely to find the car hidden behind some guy's garage.

http://nzhondas.com/general-discussion/ ... -back.html

I found my car less then an hour after I found it to be missing, video here Stagea stolen and recovered with GPS tracker - YouTube










[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-o0S5TmIA"]"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-o0S5TmIA"[/url]

[slighty_looney]

thats awesome, glad he found his car

[Dell'Orto]

I wonder how he actually got the police to come though?

[Adoom]

What does car theft get you anyway? Slap on the hand? A fine? Community service? Jail time? Public castration(I vote for this one BTW)? Public stoning? Removal of a digit/hand/foot/arm/leg/head? "THIEF" tatooed on their forehead?

It must be a $&#$% lame punishment IRL, or easy to get away with, since it happens so often....?

[Akane]

that just made my day

[RedMist]

Brilliant devices for silly little money and low yearly maintenance costs.
I run one in the TVR and another in my race truck.
Hadn't thought of using tha aux out for the horn though. Clever.

Did you try using the mic?

[FST4RD]

That's awesome!
Only thing I would worry about, especially posting this online would be the scum who stole the car knowing where you live and coming back to your house...
Anyone got a link on trademe to the GPS units?

[loudstealthGT-Four]

That's awesome!
Only thing I would worry about, especially posting this online would be the scum who stole the car knowing where you live and coming back to your house...
Anyone got a link on trademe to the GPS units?

EDIT: this is the unit the the guy used in this story. http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=418561639

And this is a different unit
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 437551.htm

[iOnic]

How easy would it be to keep one of these units hidden? I'm guessing that the GPS and GSM antennas have to be out in the open? What's stopping any thief with half a brain from seeing them and tearing the interior apart to find where they go and then just unplugging them?

In my mind, these devices are only useful if the thief isn't aware of their presence. They can bypass most alarms easily enough so this is a second stage of protection but if they know it's there then they can get around this too...Would be nice if you could keep the antennas hidden but I'm guessing that affects their ability to get a signal which defeats the purpose? Gonna buy one regardless though. Can count on most thieves to have less than half a brain.

[sergei]

How easy would it be to keep one of these units hidden? I'm guessing that the GPS and GSM antennas have to be out in the open? What's stopping any thief with half a brain from seeing them and tearing the interior apart to find where they go and then just unplugging them?

In my mind, these devices are only useful if the thief isn't aware of their presence. They can bypass most alarms easily enough so this is a second stage of protection but if they know it's there then they can get around this too...Would be nice if you could keep the antennas hidden but I'm guessing that affects their ability to get a signal which defeats the purpose? Gonna buy one regardless though. Can count on most thieves to have less than half a brain.

Antennae don't have to be in clear sight, they can be behind a plastic panel providing they are not obscured by metal body work.

[iOnic]

So under the dash somewhere is fine? That's good to know!

[SkylineObsession]

Here's the original post on Southern Skylines.

[Crucible]

Thats money well spend imo. most idiots wouldnt even realise that one is fitted. what a good investment.

Stolen and then busted within an hour...priceless

[celica_xr9145]

Would like to know what his punishment was

[Bling]

Will be f**k all. The NZ justice system is a joke, no point getting our hopes up they actually get a fitting punishment. You have to feel for the cops having to deal with such $&#$% on a daily basis. Getting them charged and the judges just letting them off with such pointless punishment. Until they start to actually make people pay for their crimes then we'll just continue down the toilet as a country.

Guy needs to be taken out of the gene pool.

[duddley]

Yeah the sentences in NZ are a joke!, I was watching that Drug bust programme the other night and the cops raided a Mongrel mob members house he was dealing P from, they found a few grand worth of P, point bags, A whole lot of weed and precut tinfoil, a chopped down rifle with ammo and I think he got 2 and a half years in prision. So in a year and a half he will probably be back on the streets

[FST4RD]

2 and half years in prison will just get him more contacts and he'll come out worse off.
Perhaps prison needs to be all solitary confinement, no contact with anyone except the prison guard when they push your bread and water through the feeding slot in the cell.

[snwtoy]

Yeah the sentences in NZ are a joke!, I was watching that Drug bust programme the other night and the cops raided a Mongrel mob members house he was dealing P from, they found a few grand worth of P, point bags, A whole lot of weed and precut tinfoil, a chopped down rifle with ammo and I think he got 2 and a half years in prision. So in a year and a half he will probably be back on the streets

Sounds like a fair sentence to me. The sentences in NZ which are whack are the sentences for violent crime - rape/murder etc. You can pretty much kill someone here, and be roaming the streets again well within 10 years.


*IMO (which is more liberal than most of TS)

[duddley]

A mate woke up at 5am this morning to see his Honda Euro r reversing out of his driveway, 30 minutes later the police had the suspects in custody and apparantly the suspects are " well known to police".

[Bling]

That was lucky!