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Have you ever wondered what you would do if someone suddenly snatched your purse, or your wallet, or any other item of value that you carry around every day, ripping it out of your hands and taking off with it? You might often be out of luck in recovering your stolen valuables. How about your phone? It turns out if you have a phone linked to a GPS tracking system, you might be able to recover it faster than you think.

That’s how it worked for Jordan Sturm, who had just stepped outside of her office in San Francisco holding an iPhone. Moments after she left the building, a man on a bicycle rode up to her, grabbed the phone, and took off down the street. Sturm ran back inside and called the police. Ten minutes later, officers found and arrested 31-year-old Horatio Toure for grand theft and possession of stolen property. He probably wondered how they caught him so fast. He had no idea that the phone was part of a GPS tracking system, and more than that, the phone’s owner, David Kahn, was using the phone to demonstrate the tracking system right at that moment.

A GPS tracking system uses GPS devices on virtually anything the user wants to keep tabs on, from people to vehicles to computers. Each device relays signals to satellites which calculate the location of the device, and thus whatever the device is attached to, and communicate that information to the system user. Kahn, chief executive of Covia Labs of Mountain View, was demonstrating his company’s Alert & Respond system to the public relations department of the company. He sent Sturm outside with his phone so that they could watch her movements in real-time, and it appeared that she took off running at an unreal speed. When she came back inside without the phone, they were able to tell police right away exactly where the phone was and what direction it was moving.

Toure probably felt like this was the most unlucky day of his life. Kahn was more well-prepared than lucky. The odds might be low that he would be already watching the phone at the moment it was stolen, but in any case he would have been able to track his phone with just the few seconds delay that it would take to open a program on his computer. If more consumers become just as prepared by using a GPS tracking system on their phones and other valuables, would-be thieves might have to give up.