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By Greg Bartlett

Banks often use traditional ways of catching bank robbers, such as dye packs, fingerprints, and security cameras, but some banks are also turning to a new option to help protect the money stored in the bank. GPS tracking devices have gotten small enough that banks can store them with the money where they bank robbers can’t find them quickly and thus end up taking them along, enabling police to find out where the money – and the robber – is located.

GPS Tracking and Bank Robberies

GPS devices can be set up so that they will automatically send alerts to police should they be moved, helping to ensure that police are aware the instant a robbery is committed, perhaps even getting the police to the bank before the robbers leave or at least get very far. Then the devices continue to track the robbers, leading police to the precise location of the money. GPS tracking devices are exact enough they can even direct police to the right car in a parking lot full of cars.

In a suburb of Chicago last week, three men robbed a bank and got away with around $9,000. However, they also got away with two GPS tracking devices, which alerted police to a robbery the moment they were moved from the drawer. Police were able to pursue the robbers almost immediately, capturing one within ten minutes and, after tracing them to the house they’d fled, the police arrested the other two robbers about an hour after the robbery and also recovered the money.

In another instance, police followed a GPS device after a bank robbery to a house, and continued to follow the GPS signal to a hiding place inside a wall. The money was recovered a few hours after the robbery.

While banks are probably the most common users of GPS devices to track money, the devices can also be used for other purposes. For instance, last year a GPS tracking device was used when a man was kidnapped and held for ransom. The device was placed with the money and the FBI was able to trace it and free the man.

Tracking money isn’t impossible, and GPS tracking devices make it possible to find out exactly where money is at any time. With some devices, it is even possible to alert police the moment the money is moved, decreasing response time and helping to ensure that police come almost immediately and find the thief and money quickly.