Tracking The Trackers

[Mayney]

Guys,

I have just read a Thread from Crabman who lost a heap of expensive gear and it has always puzzled me as to why we can't track down our electronic gear.

We have GPS', EPIRB's, Navman's, mobile phones etc. that have all the bells and whistles and can give us all the information we want but none have a system whereby there location can be tracked? On the manufacturers website you could optionally record your purchase and serial number and they should be able to identify its location at any time and inform the police. Surely this is simple but maybe there is a privacy thing.

Why can't this happen?

Cheers


Mayney

[cormorant]

Some of the ones you mention are just receivers not transmitters so they can't be. Phones can as can epirbs if activated but there has to be a motivation by someone to get the authority or go to the expense. They are more interested in disabling the product and selling you a new one like they do with phones. New epirbs should be unstealable ( valueless if registered) and anyone caught with one should be charged with puttig lives in danger. In the USA phones are GPS enabled and have the ability to repoty where they are. In Aus you can buy GPS trackers for boats and cars and plot them on a map or have them call in the co-ordinates or send them by Text. Recently a Mac computer user recovered their laptop as the thief logged in and she was able to remotely turn on the webcam and gave photos of thief using her computer to police - helped that her flatmate recognised him as well.

Best you can do is engrave all your stuff with drivers lic number or datadot it so if it is ever recovered by police they know who to contact and you can identify your goods.

The driver of this is all about insurance companies who rely on our insecurity and ability to pay premiums and if there were no thieves we wouldn't need theft insurance - it's all a conspiracy - add smiley thingy here several times

See ya


You of course could attached a hand grenade to everything you own and just visit the hospital looking for your thief!!!

[Mayney]

Cormorant,

Thanks for the informed response. It would save a lot of people the heartache if their goods could be easily recovered and would significantly reduce theft and receiving stolen goods.

I like your conspiracy theory. I think that there is something in that.

;)

[rooboy98]

Cormorant hit the nail on the head with regards to engraving your property.

Like alot of people I found out the hard way.

It was only after walking around my emptied out house talking to the police that attended the scene after the event that I realized how important engraving your gear is.

In Queensland there is a unique way of engraving/marking your goods. (called the Police Property Tracing System). Info on this process should be available from any police station (or look up www.police.qld.gov.au (http://www.police.qld.gov.au) and search "police property tracing system").

They even used to lend you out an engraver at some stations (Well they used to when I last looked into it ). They also used to supply small stickers to place on valuable items, stating that the item is engraved with the code (so a thief will hopefully see the sticker first and think that it is not worth the hassle of stealing and offloading).

Basically you engrave/mark your own code onto your property which consists of:

Your first initial (Given name) eg. T for Tom
Your last initial (Surname) J for Jones
Your date of birth in numbers 120485 12th April 1985
and Q for queensland. Q

Therefore TJ120485Q. You register this number with the police.


One example he used was how they had pulled cars over before for whatever reason and they had seen what they believed were probably stolen goods in it. Without engraving they could really do very little. Even with an actual person's name engraved on it, he reckoned that it was still hard to do anything about it.

However with a unique code as described above (which is registered) the owner of the goods can be established. Recovered goods can also be returned to their rightful owners and the goods now become harder to offload at 2nd hand shops etc.

Something to think about, and don't forget "what goes around comes around". They caught and charged a bloke involving stolen goods from my robbery nearly 3 years afterwards!

Cheers,
Roo.

PS

PLEASE check with the local police in your state BEFORE running out and engraving/marking valuable items worth stealing as the registration process/details you engrave etc may have changed with time. I am unsure whether this scheme is Australia wide or only in Queensland.

[Aunty Jack]

Bloody good idea.
That or chop of there theiving hands.
:behead: