WASHINGTON COUNTY, VT – Two brothers are facing up to 10 years each in federal prison for dealing heroin on the East Coast.
They could have minimized the damage to their lives if they had changed their habits after their initial arrests; but they went right back to their routine and repeated the offense.
Police caught the culprits twice in the very same way: with GPS tracking devices on their cars. (more…)
Real-time GPS trackingIn the early portion of 2008, a group of art thieves walked into a Zurich museum with the intention to burglarize some of the most beautiful artwork every created. The gang of men collected four masterpieces created by impressionists, and escaped into the night with stolen art. Some of the artwork was created by famous painters Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet. The artworks had an estimated worth of almost 200 million dollars. Although the art museum had security guards and other surveillance equipment, the burglars were able to successfully pull off one of the largest heists in history. The question many museums and art lovers found asking themselves is how could this have happened and what could have been done to prevent it? The solution may come in GPS tracking technology, specifically real-time GPS tracking technology designed exactly for theft recovery applications.
GPS tracking technology has been successfully used by businesses and consumers for various applications ranging from routing, planning, mileage calculating, to personal tracking. GPS tracking systems record very specific information about an object’s location among other useful data. Real-time GPS tracking systems allow users to view data live as it happens, and is used as a tool for many businesses in theft-recovery of expensive or valuable equipment.
A real-time GPS tracking system could have been attached to the art work and provided authorities with information on the artwork’s location. The real-time GPS tracking systems that are used for theft recovery applications typically sit dormant and then can be “pinged” when the user wants to view the location of the GPS tracking system. Therefore, if the item that is attached with GPS tracking system is ever moved or stolen the item’s whereabouts can quickly be detected. Many police officers who have recovered stolen goods thanks to the aid of a GPS tracking system always express that they wished all valuable equipment were outfitted with GPS tracking technology. A GPS tracking system would probably have never prevented the art theft but it may have led authorities to the criminal’s location.
Although the police did not have many leads they did follow protocol, dusting for finger prints and believed one of the criminals spoke with a Slavic accent in German. A $97,000 reward was also being offered to any individuals who may have information that could lead to the arrest of the criminals. Thankfully, Interpol agents were able to eventually track down the painting’s locations a bring the art back to the museum safely. A GPS tracking system used as a theft recovery device would have cost the museum approximately $399.00 and about $40.00 a month for the GPS tracking monitoring service. It is not known whether the museum now implements GPS tracking technology as another form of security.
