Commentary

GPS Helps Thieves Steal Two Cars From One Man In Same Night

I'd hate to be this guy. A Long Island resident had a Mercedes stolen from a Manhasset restaurant. The keys to his Porsche were in the car, too. The thieves used the GPS unit in the Mercedes to find the man's house and liberate him of his Porsche.

I'd hate to be this guy. A Long Island resident had a Mercedes stolen from a Manhasset restaurant. The keys to his Porsche were in the car, too. The thieves used the GPS unit in the Mercedes to find the man's house and liberate him of his Porsche.This poor guy. Talk about technology falling into the wrong hands and being used for nefarious purposes.

The Long Island man in question drove his 2008 Mercedes to Pearl East Restaurant in Manhasset, N.Y. While there, the keys were taken from the valet station of the restaurant.


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Inside the car was a set of keys to his 2003 Porsche. The police believe the thieves saw the keys -- and the opportunity to make a second kill in one night. Because the Mercedes was equipped with GPS, it is believed that the thieves used the GPS to track the Mercedes back to the owner's home, where the Porsche was parked in his driveway.

When the man called home, he found out the Porsche was missing, too. There was no word yet if the man had LoJack or similar locating services for either car. Nor was it reported that the cars have been recovered.

For the victim's sake, I hope the police are able to use the GPS information in the Mercedes to find it before it is completely stripped by the thieves.

Don't let this story convince you to avoid putting GPS in your company vehicles. If you're a business owner, GPS can be a valuable tool for controlling costs and not just providing thieves with the ability to find and steal your other fleet vehicles. In fact, quite the opposite is true. GPS is often used to track, locate, and recover stolen assets.


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