Rocky Mountain Tracking

By Greg Bartlett

In the United States, four vehicles are stolen every two minutes. And it’s not the new vehicles which are the most popular auto theft target. Honda Accords and Civics, Dodge Rams and Caravans, and Ford F-150s, and Explorers are all among the top ten most-stolen cars, with the car years ranging between 1994 and 2002. Whether your car fits into one of those categories or is likely to be stolen because of the area you live in, or you just want to protect your car from theft, there has to be a way to make sure that your car isn’t one of those that’s stolen in the next two minutes.

Some of the ways you currently protect your car are simple. Locking the doors, for instance, and not leaving valuables visible in the vehicle which would tempt a thief. Parking in well-lit areas may also provide some protection. But one of the best devices, especially for tracking and recovering stolen vehicles, is GPS vehicle tracking.

With a GPS vehicle tracking device, you can follow your car if it is moved and help police locate it before it is sold or dismantled for parts in a chop shop.

You’ll be able to find out exactly where your vehicle is and recover it, as one truck owner did in Florida when his two tow trucks were stolen.

GPS vehicle tracking may also help your car not get stolen in the first place. Many GPS systems allow you to use anti-theft devices such as alerting you if the vehicle is moved without authorization. Another option, ignition shut-off, allows you to then turn off your vehicle before it gets very far. It can even keep your car from starting in the first place, and if your car wont start, chances are it won’t be stolen, either. One study found that such devices are tremendously effective in auto theft prevention.

No matter what kind of car you have, you don’t want it to be stolen. In addition to taking the basic precautions to protect your car, add a GPS vehicle tracking device, which will allow you to locate, monitor, and recover your car if it is stolen. If you decide to include an ignition shut-off option, you may even keep your car from becoming one of the four cars stolen in the next two minutes.

by James Neely, freelance writer: click | HERE | to inquire about writing services

Hey, we’ve all seen it.  Some of us are lazy and leave our keys in the ignition when we are running into the store for just one little item.  Heck, some of us have even left children unattended during these runs!  We ought to be flogged publically for that.  Should we be surprised when bad things happen because of our actions, then?  Of course not.  It’s time for a mindset change.  Actually, it’s past time.

The damage that can be done from leaving children in vehicles has been well documented by incredibly horrible stories that we hear all too often.  There is one way to fix this:  stop doing it.

The other consequence of leaving your keys in your car and the ignition is that your car is very likely to be stolen.  So here are some common sense things to do to prevent car thefts (really, do we have to be told this stuff?).

Turn off Your Car, Take Your Keys and Lock Your Doors

Almost all newer vehicles feature remote door locking mechanisms that are operated from a key fob.  If you do not have one, you can purchase after-market systems that integrate with your existing electric car door locks.  If you do not have electric door locks, then keep all of the doors locked at all times.  Then, when you exit your car, lock it from the outside with your key.  That way you are assured that you will never lock your keys in your car.

Use Vehicle Theft Deterrent Devices

If you have a factory installed theft deterrent system and it requires you to activate it when you leave your vehicle then use it every time - even if it seems stupid to do so.  And, if you do not have one, you can get one as an after-market add-on.  Even something basic is better than nothing at all.

Invest in a GPS Tracking Device

This is the best advice of all: invest in a GPS Tracking device for your vehicle.  These devices come in different models and have varying features, but the bottom line is that you can track the location of your vehicle in real-time with the right model.  Should your car become stolen, you can track it and provide the information to the local police for recovery.

There’s no reason not to use methods to protect your vehicle and possessions.  Cost is not an issue, nor is availability.  Obtain one to use today in your vehicles.

By Greg Bartlett

GPS tracking devices continue to contribute to the nation’s decreasing auto theft rate, according to a study by a leading research group. A national organization that helps instruct about crime released its annual auto theft report last week, which includes data on the most commonly stolen types of vehicles in the United States.

The top reported target for 2008 was the 1994 Honda Accord. The newest model vehicle to make the top ten list was the 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup, coming in at number five. Researchers say the vehicles stolen most often represented a perfect storm of vulnerability and scrap value. The vehicles included in the report featured outdated security systems and expensive parts. Car thieves find it easy to profile those particularly attractive vehicles.

However, thanks to improving technology and the efforts of law enforcement, car thefts in 2008 were reduced to less than a million, possibly the lowest number in twenty years. If preliminary numbers are to be believed, this represents a decrease of 13.1% from the previous year. These figures coincide with a decrease in the overall crime rate, but caution and technology have certainly played an important role.

There are four recommended layers of prevention to avoid the loss or theft of your vehicle. One of these is of course the installation of a GPS tracking device. The benefits of knowing the location of your vehicle at all times are obvious. The location data may be transmitted silently and relayed to your computer, letting you monitor the position of your vehicle in real-time. Even disregarding the possibility of car theft, a GPS tracking device can provide peace of mind to parents worrying over young drivers. But clearly, a simple, inexpensive tracker will allow you to provide law enforcement the information they need to recover your vehicle in the event of theft.

Other ways to hamper would-be car thieves are mentioned, as well. Locking your car when you exit may seem like a simple step, but a surprising number of people forget. Also, a warning device which triggers when your car has been tampered with is an effective deterrent. More and more people are investing in immobilizing devices, too. These include kill switches of all kinds - anything which prevents car thieves from starting and driving off with your vehicle.

As GPS tracking devices become more integrated into our day-to-day lives, we can begin to see their simple yet profound benefits apply over a wider scale.

By Greg Bartlett

Your mom thinks you’re at a friend’s house, studying, but you’re not. She doesn’t know that pretty much every day after school, you head downtown and scout out the cars, looking for things to steal from them. You have a friend who steals the cars themselves, and someday you intend to work up to that, but for now you’re just sticking with taking electronics and other valuables from the vehicles.

You finally pick a vehicle that looks like a good target. You can clearly see a laptop and a cell phone left in the car by careless owners. You’ve gotten good at breaking in, so it takes you about thirty seconds to unlock the car. Then you start searching the car quickly, trying to make sure you’ve gotten everything of value.

And yes, that is a police officer right behind you, telling you you’re under arrest. You try to tell him it’s your friend’s car, but he doesn’t believe you. He has a good reason not to – the car is owned by the police, and it’s a bait car just waiting for people like you.

A bait car is usually put in areas where the community has had problems with car break-ins and auto thefts. Valuables such as the ones you were targeting are placed inside, and the car itself is equipped with GPS vehicle tracking. If the car is broken into, it alerts police at once.

If you’d decided to steal the car, like your friend would have done, the GPS vehicle tracking unit would have alerted police when the car was moved, and would have continued to send information to police as you drove. If police wanted to, they could then use the GPS vehicle tracking device to shut off the car or to slow it down so it could only go a couple miles an hour, and to lock the doors. Um, that’s right, you would have been locked in, unable to escape, while the car just sat there, waiting for the police to arrive and arrest you.

This looked like an easy car, sure. You could get into it quickly, get a couple items, sell them at the pawn shop, and have the extra cash you wanted. But because of GPS vehicle tracking, your target wasn’t so easy. You picked a bait car – so instead of cash, you got a ticket to jail. Maybe you should have gone to that friend’s house to study instead.

By Greg Bartlett

Auto theft is on the rise in many areas of the country. Stolen cars are generally easy to get rid of and bring a good price, which makes them favorite targets for criminals. Unfortunately, traditional theft prevention methods such as locks and alarms present little deterrent to an experienced car thief. While you’re sitting snug in your home relying on your car’s built in alarm system to protect your vehicle, a savvy car thief can be into your car and out of town, putting many miles between you and him before you realize what’s happened. How can you prevent a scenario like this? One of the best ways to protect your car from theft is to use a GPS vehicle tracker.

A GPS vehicle tracker transmitter placed discreetly in your car will monitor the vehicle’s whereabouts by sending signals to your home computer or a receiving device. Not only will you be able to view the car’s exact location at any time, but some models will also provide information such as the speed and direction of travel, location and length of stops, and fuel usage. If your car is stolen, this information could prove invaluable for police officers as they follow up on the theft.

Law enforcement officers find it difficult to recover stolen vehicles using traditional methods. The man hours and effort involved in tracking down a single car thief often proves too much for a department’s limited resources resulting in very few stolen vehicles being returned to their owners. With GPS tracking however, the recovery rates increase dramatically. If your car is equipped with GPS technology, you can provide police officers with specific information that allows them to pinpoint the location in moments. You can also program your GPS vehicle tracker with perimeter boundaries. If the car crosses the boundary, an alert will be sent to your cell phone or computer, allowing for immediate action to be taken.

Next to your home, your car is probably your most valuable asset. While you undoubtedly take precautions such as locking your car or parking in a garage, a determined thief will not be deterred by these methods. Investing in a GPS vehicle tracker may be the best way to provide protection for your car and peace of mind for yourself. Don’t let yourself become a victim. You can take the upper hand over even the most experienced thief by taking proactive action to stop him before he starts.

By Greg Bartlett

You work downtown and usually park in the same area in the parking garage, but recently you’ve had concerns about the safety of your vehicle. You lock your doors, of course, but in the past few months you’ve heard about a number of cars being stolen from areas like the parking garage. So how can you be sure your car really is secure and won’t be stolen?

One way to be certain you know where your car is located is to use a GPS tracking device. The tracking device will allow you to monitor your vehicle in real time and will even alert you if it is moved. Yes, that’s right – your car will actually call or text you if it’s stolen. You can then monitor its progress while you call the police, who can follow your car, capture the thief, and recover your vehicle. Your GPS tracking device may even have an immobilization option, which would allow you to shut off the vehicle once you know it’s been stolen.

You can also use your GPS tracking device to set up boundaries outside of which your car shouldn’t be taken. If it crosses the geo-fence, you’d be alerted at once. So say you’re planning on having a coworker borrow your vehicle to go get lunch, and you’re not worried when you see the car moving in the early afternoon. You would still be alerted about suspicious activity if the car gets too far away and leaves the boundaries you’ve set. If you’re using your tracking device to monitor other household drivers, such as teenagers, the geo-fence option can be especially helpful.

One company recently had a vehicle stolen and alerted police to its theft. Police were able to use the GPS vehicle tracking device to locate the car, which was hidden inside a semi-trailer truck, and to recover the company’s car along with another stolen vehicle – and they were even able to arrest the thieves. The recovery occurred within about 24 hours, which was especially helpful since the thieves had already put false plates on the cars and apparently intended to sell them quickly.

A GPS tracking device can help you keep track of your vehicle at all times and to keep you aware of what is happening to your car. You don’t have to worry about it disappearing while you’re at work, since your GPS unit will monitor your vehicle and help keep it from being stolen.

By Greg Bartlett

It’s been a hectic day at work, and you had to stop by the grocery store on the way home. You quickly gather your bags after checkout and head out to where you parked. Your car isn’t there, so you figure you must have the wrong row. But the more you look, the more you realize that your transportation is gone. Somehow, your car disappeared, and you don’t think it rolled off on its own. Now you have to go through the process of filing a police report and hoping you can get your stolen vehicle back. Unfortunately, the chances are pretty slim.

Actually, your chances are higher than average since you recently installed a GPS vehicle tracking device in your car. You’d intended to use it just to find out where you vehicle went, how long each trip was, where it stopped, and how fast it was going. That way you could make sure your teenager, the only other person who drives your car, is being safe when you’re not in the car with him. But now your GPS vehicle tracking device will have another benefit. It can help you find your car.

Once you get home, you get on the internet and track the real-time location of your car. It takes you minutes to find it, and then it only takes a bit more for the police to head out and retrieve your car. Before long, you receive the good news. Your car has been recovered intact, and the police caught the thieves, too.

Thankfully you now have your car back, but the incident makes you realize that maybe you should have bought the GPS vehicle tracking device which also alerts you in the event of theft. If you’d had that device, you would have been alerted the moment the car alarm was activated. Then you could have started the retrieval process even quicker, and perhaps the police would have recovered the car before the thieves even reached their home. The device could even deactivate your vehicle or slow it down so it will hardly go, making it impossible for a thief to escape in your vehicle.

Your GPS vehicle tracking device enabled the safe return of your car, but if it’s ever stolen again, this time you have the device that alerts you instantly if the car is stolen and can also slow down the thieves. Next time you go to the grocery store, you won’t be left without your ride.

By Greg Bartlett

Vehicles are expensive. Whether you have a minivan, a sporty convertible, or a pickup truck, you probably paid a good chunk of money for your wheels. And most likely, you’re still making payments. The last thing that you want to do is have your vehicle become stolen. Not only does this leave you without something to drive, but it means that you’ll be paying off the vehicle while someone else gets to drive it.

Smart Tracker

However, GPS technology can put an end to that. Placing a GPS tracker discreetly in your vehicle will allow you to track the vehicle if it is stolen. Stolen vehicles can be very difficult, if not impossible to track, but having a GPS device hidden in the car can mean the speedy return of your vehicle.

All you have to do when you discover that your car is stolen is log on to your computer and look up the real time GPS tracker that you have hidden inside it. You will instantly be able to see the location of the vehicle on a digital map. You could then call and alert the police. By given them a description of the car as well as the location it is parked or the road that it is driving down and the direction that it is headed, you could have your vehicle back to you in just a few hours.

If you live in a big city and leave your vehicle parked in a garage for extended periods of time, you may also find it helpful to use the geo-fencing feature of the GPS tracker. You can set up the tracker to alert you if the vehicle were to leave the parking garage for any reason. This would give you peace of mind as you leave your vehicle in the parking garage for weeks or months at a time.

Knowing that it is secured with a GPS tracker will help you not to worry about your vehicle or even think about it until it is time to take a trip out of the big city. You would obviously want to turn this feature off whenever you are taking the vehicle out of the garage yourself to keep it from sending you an alert email or text message, but it is a very useful feature.

There are just a few cautions about tracking a stolen car with a GPS tracking device. It is important to keep the battery of the device charged so that the device is able to transmit continually until the vehicle is recovered. A dying battery does you no good if the vehicle is stolen. Also, it is important to hide the device well. You do not want to make it obvious to the thief that you are tracking him.

by James Neely - freelance writer for hire

From Louisiana comes a news item which deals with automobile theft and insurance fraud prevention. The Commissioner of Insurance for the state of Louisiana has stated that they now have a new insurance fraud and vehicle theft website.

The purpose is to create deterrence to vehicle theft and insurance fraud by attracting money from private sources in order to provide support for law enforcement activities, make the public aware, and encourage community action with educational awareness.

While this effort is admirable and will have some impact, the state of Louisiana needs to add another prong to their approach: encourage the purchase and use of GPS vehicle tracking devices as well.

These are the reasons that they should include this approach:

Tracking in case of theft. If your vehicle is stolen and you have a GPS vehicle tracking device installed, you will be able to track your car to within a few feet of its actual location. If you have a device that sends out a constant signal, you can trace it in real-time through a website on your computer and relay the information on the location to the local police to aid in the recovery process. Your vehicle can be recovered within hours rather than days, weeks, months, or maybe not at all.

Lower insurance rates. Most insurance companies will give a deduction to those who use devices that help prevent the theft of their vehicles. It saves the insurance companies money and they return it to you in the form of lower premiums. It is a ‘win-win’ situation for all parties.

General awareness of deterrence measures. Making the community aware of theft deterrent devices in vehicles helps make for a safer place to live. It is likely that perpetrators will go elsewhere for easier targets. It also sends the message that the community is serious about their crime fighting activities and it could have a spill-over affect on the rest of the area as well.

While the Louisiana website will include tips for protecting yourself from becoming a victim of car theft, they leave out any mention of GPS vehicle tracking systems as one of the best deterrence mechanisms available. Any serious efforts need to include this option as well.

GPS vehicle tracking devices have already proven their worth many times over. Even if your state does not encourage the purchase and use of these effective devices, you can rest assured that it is money well-spent.

By Greg Bartlett

Has your car ever been stolen? Even if it hasn’t, at some point in time you’ve probably worried about the possibility. Car theft occurs regularly, and many times once a vehicle is stolen, the owners never see it again. Or, if they can find it but don’t reach it fast enough, chop shops may already have started to dismantle the vehicle.

Concerned car owners, attempting to protect their vehicles and ensure that they will be able to recover their car if it is stolen, are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to help them monitor their vehicles. Since GPS tracking can track a vehicle’s every location and movement, it is an ideal choice for car theft prevention.

If installed in your vehicle, GPS vehicle tracking knows the exact location of your car and can track its movements, speed, and stops. It can even alert you if your vehicle goes outside predetermined boundaries or is being driven erratically or at excessive speeds. While this can be helpful to monitor your family’s vehicles and ensure that your teenagers, for instance, are being careful while driving or that your fleet, if you own a company, is being efficient, it can also be helpful if your car is stolen.

In Arkansas, a truck belonging to a construction company was stolen. As soon as the company realized the truck was gone, they contacted the GPS vehicle tracking service, which determined the vehicle’s location within seconds. The construction company then notified police, and the truck was recovered within about 5 minutes after the construction company realized it was stolen. The GPS tracking service reports that it has also helped recover cars, boats, other construction equipment, tractor-trailer trucks, and even merchandise, all because its GPS tracking system is able to discover within seconds the location of a stolen vehicle, which could then be reported to police.

Obviously, GPS tracking is useful for more than just cars. It can help monitor and recover any kind of expensive equipment or items, and it can also help companies and individuals track their vehicles and manage time and resources more effectively. But if your vehicle – or boat, or tractor, or whatever item you own that has a GPS tracking device installed on it – is stolen, GPS vehicle tracking may not only be the most effective way of locating and recovering your vehicle, but also the fastest. Five minutes to recover a stolen vehicle is hard to beat.