GPS Tracking Devices Aid Recovery of Air Conditioners
LEWISVILLE, TX – Building materials and equipment have always been easy targets for thieves because they are fairly easily to move, often placed out in the open, and expensive.
Now construction crews and tradesmen can add GPS tracking devices to their list of security measures, alongside surveillance cameras and guard dogs.
“I would guess a lot of homebuilders are using GPS tracking,” said Gopal Ahluwalia, vice president of research for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington D.C, who added that theft at construction sites costs the industry about $5 billion a year.
Recently, in Lewisville, a suburb of Dallas, TX, two air conditioning units were taken from a construction site. Each was valued at about $2,000. The builders of the housing development, Centex Corp. had discreetly hidden GPS tracking devices inside the appliances.
GPS tracking devices calculate location by capturing satellite readings. The device’s movements can be monitored in real-time from a remote personal computer.
For quite a while, GPS tracking systems have been used in vehicles, but as the technology matures and the units get smaller and more affordable, they are increasingly being placed on other household and business assets – even small ones.
In the Texas case, Centex managers set up their GPS tracking system to send them an automated alert message if their GPS-tagged equipment was moved outside a designated area. The technology is called geo-fencing. So at that point they logged on to a special Web site that enabled them to read the GPS tracking data. They found the air conditioning units in a storage facility in Irving, about 20 miles away. Police only needed the name of the storage unit’s lease holder. He led cops to the crooks.
Like guard dogs and cameras, GPS tracking devices do not guarantee that assets will not be stolen, but they add an extra layer of protection against it. If theft does occur, GPS tracking devices certainly raise the odds of recovery.
Tags: air conditioning, Geo-fencing, GPS Tracking
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