Stolen caravan tracked within 3 hours and serial thief captured
At 3am on 23 March 2010, a TRACKER customer from Redditch, Worcestershire was woken from his sleep by a text alert from the TRACKER control room. The UK leader in stolen caravan tracking, TRACKER, was warning him that his caravan, which should have been in storage 5 miles away was being moved. Having raced to where the caravan was meant to be, the customer discovered his pride and joy had indeed gone. He immediately notified the local police and TRACKER and the tracking device fitted to his caravan was activated.
Unknown to the thief, the caravan was transmitting a silent signal which was soon picked up by patrolling officers from West Mercia’s Central Motorway Patrol Group as he headed south on the M5 motorway. Having travelled some distance from where he stole the caravan, he was happily thinking about ‘his new investment’ until he saw the blue lights of the police cars behind him. His joy turned to sorrow when it was established that not only was he in possession of the stolen caravan, his towing vehicle was also stolen and on false plates. He even had two warrants for his arrest outstanding. Meanwhile, tears of sadness turned to joy for TRACKER’s customer, whose caravan had been recovered within 3 hours of it going missing.
Adrian Davenport, Police Liaison Manager from TRACKER said, “Once again this shows how vulnerable caravans are to theft whilst in storage. If the owner hadn’t made the wise investment of fitting a TRACKER caravan recovery product, the theft of this caravan most probably would not have been discovered for several weeks. As to the male who had stolen the caravan, suddenly all thoughts of a holiday in ‘his’ new caravan turned to thoughts of his possible ‘holiday’ in Her Majesty’s Prison.”
TRACKER stolen vehicle recovery systems work like an electronic homing device. A covert transmitter is hidden in one of several dozen places around the vehicle. There is no visible aerial, so the thief won’t even know it’s there. Unlike other tracking systems, the device works even if the vehicle is hidden in a garage or shipping container, offering car owners the ultimate in peace of mind should the worst happen.
