In order to protect one’s assets and rein in insurance costs, it is often necessary to outsmart a would-be thief. This could not be more true in the case of armored cars, known by some as the “cash transport industry,” one of the most vulnerable privately-run businesses imaginable, with a huge potential for loss.
Armed guards and an impenetrable bulletproof outer shell on the vehicle were the earliest attempts at safety for the armored car.  This has been true for about a century. But to be sure, they are not the only precautionary measures.

What security steps are taken in armored cars today, to protect their precious cargo? You might be surprised at the innovative ways we are securing our “money in transit.” GPS tracking devices are part of the arsenal.

Paul Jaworski, a Polish-American immigrant, masterminded the first successful armored  car robbery in 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jaworski’s gang buried an explosive in a dirt road and detonated it under the vehicle. They made off with about $100,000.

Jaworski would not be so lucky today, given the state of technology. It’s very difficult to pull off an armored car robbery. The FBI says only about 40 robberies from armored cars occur each year. Comparatively, there are about 7,000 robberies a year of financial institutions. (more…)

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FBI Says it’s One of the Reasons Car Thefts are Down 50 Percent

GPS tracking of ordinary consumer vehicles was unheard of 20 years ago. Now it’s one of the fastest growing niche technologies.

In that same time span, the chances of you having your car stolen has dropped dramatically, even though there are significantly more vehicles on the road.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation knows that this is no coincidence. It cites GPS tracking as a contributing factor in these encouraging statistics: Today, your odds are 1 in 300 that your car will be stolen. Twenty years ago, one of every 150 vehicles was the target of thieves.

Contributors to the drop in car thefts:

1. Better police enforcement
2. Vehicle tracking systems
3. Power disabling systems

Better Police Work

In addition to nabbing individual thieves through traditional hunt-and-chase, law enforcement agencies are more focused on the bigger picture: investigating and busting major theft operations. All car thieves take their goods somewhere, and often they go to the same place again and again.

Often, police use vehicle tracking systems to monitor suspected car thieves’ patterns of behavior. After Arizona lawmakers approved a special task force to uncover theft rings, police accomplished just that. The number car thefts in the state have tumbled for the last six years. (more…)

BOSTON, MA – Global Positioning System (GPS-based) vehicle tracking devices have a way of taking all the fun out of a police chase.

A man from the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston, MA. and two accomplices are behind bars for attempted bank robbery. Not only did the trio fail to get any cash when they staged a holdup at the East Boston Savings Bank in Everett, their escape was rather ho-hum. Police watched the crime happen, then just followed the getaway car on a computer screen in real time. The men were in custody a few minutes later.

Massachusetts State Police planted a vehicle tracking device last October on the car Richard R. Wark Jr., 25, was borrowing from his uncle. Police had suspected Wark was involved in a different bank robbery about three weeks earlier, so they had him under surveillance with the vehicle tracking device.

They placed the vehicle tracking device on the car Oct. 25.

On the day of the most recent crime, state and federal authorities followed a Dodge Intrepid driven by Wark for several hours, rather uneventfully, until the vehicle tracking system showed it parked outside the East Boston Savings Bank about 4 p.m.

Police at the scene allegedly saw two passengers get out of the car, enter the bank, then flee the bank quickly and get back into the car. The FBI said they never got any cash. Then authorities simply tracked the getaway car a short distance away to South Boston and arrested the three men.

With the vehicle tracking report submitted as evidence in court, it was rather difficult for the would-be robbers to deny they were at the scene of the crime.

Wark pled guilty June 16 in Boston federal court to the attempted bank robbery and also admitted he was involved in an Oct. 1 robbery of a Citizens Bank in Hampton Falls, N.H. During the Citizens Bank robbery, Wark and another man got away with $8,500.

Wark will be sentenced on Sept. 23. He could face up to 40 years in prison.

The two other men allegedly involved in the vehicle tracking bank robbery, Jason S. Geddes and Edward A. Stone, pled guilty and were sentenced in July.

Federal law allows police to place vehicle tracking units on people’s cars because, although vehicle tracking is high tech spying, it’s really no different than just tracking a car visually. Of course, GPS vehicle tracking is easier and more efficient than the alternative.

Vehicle tracking devices are used heavily by law enforcement agencies. They enable police to know exactly where a vehicle is, from miles away at a remote location.