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By Harriette Halepis

KTVQ News, Rawlins, Wyoming, March 19, 2010 – A Rawlins, Wyoming, rental car company made the right move when they decided to install a GPS tracker on their entire fleet. Granted, when the GPS trackers were installed, the car company had no idea just how handy the little gadgets would be. When some Rock Springs jewellery thieves decided to steal one of the GPS equipped cars, a would-be heist went terribly wrong (for the thieves, at least).

GPS & Car Rentals

Detectives with the New York Police Department had been trailing the thieves for quite some time when they noticed that the car was headed towards Wyoming. By alerting Wyoming troopers as to the type of stolen car that the thieves were driving, the troopers found out that the car in-question was already being tracked by a GPS tracker.

Following the tracker’s lead, Wyoming police located the stolen car and arrested the two criminals. Inside of the car, police found more than $37,000 worth of iPods, digital cameras, jewellery, and laptops. The two thieves captured by Wyoming police were arraigned in a Wyoming court on the 17^th of March, 2010.

Today, rental car companies across the nation are looking at this story as a good example of why GPS trackers should be installed on rental cars. Since rental cars are owned by rental car companies, it is not illegal to install a GPS tracker on a rental car.

However, having the assurance of a GPS tracker gives peace of mind to rental car companies that want to keep tabs on cars at all times. In this particular case, a GPS tracker helped to capture thieves. In other instances, GPS-equipped rental cars can prevent renters from misleading rental car companies.

GPS trackers are being used for many different things all around the world, though the concept of equipping rental cars with trackers is an original one. In today’s world, car thieves will be hard-pressed to find a car that is not laced with the latest technology, which is just another reason why GPS trackers make our world safer.