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A 24-hour burglary spree ended at 12:31pm, on Saturday afternoon, when suspect William Brent Bowen was arrested by police. The suspect, a 31 years old Steens resident, is believed to be behind multiple vehicle burglaries in the area. At this point there are no other known suspects, and he is believed to have worked alone. Calls are still coming in, reporting stolen items, so the total damages are not yet available, but authorities are estimating that Bowen broke into between 25 and 30 cars.

Investigator Tony Cooper attributes the timely arrest to GPS tracking technology. Apparently, one of the cell phones Bowen allegedly stole, was equipped with GPS tracking. The owner of the stolen phone contacted AT&T, who were able to track the cell phone’s location. AT&T representatives worked with the Sheriff’s Department, who had been receiving burglary reports since noon on Friday, to trace the phone to Highway 12. Bowen was caught red-handed with the stolen property and brought into custody.

Bowen had an idea that he might be in trouble after noticing a heavy police presence in the area. He proceeded to toss many stolen items out of his tan Chevrolet Lumina, but there was still enough stolen property in the vehicle to make an arrest, once the police caught up with him. “He took purses, change, checkbooks, small stuff; we’re still looking for a couple of guns missing,” said Cooper. “We’re still getting phone calls from people just finding out.”

“We’ve had other investigations where we pinged phones and found people,” explained Cooper; “pinged” referring to cell phone triangulation. “This is one of the few I can recall where someone stole a cell phone with GPS, and all their movements led us right to them.” Although it’s a first for Tony Cooper, GPS tracking has been used in many similar cases around the world, using location information to recover stolen property and bring criminals to justice.

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor