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Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

blues.io

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Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#41

Post by CabSauce »

thereddaikon wrote: post #31
tempnow987 wrote: post #22

One note, in some cities the parking folks don't talk to police, so if your car is stolen you can start checking for tickets. This used to result in pretty quick hits. I had my car stolen 3 times and recovered it each time, unfortunately in progressively worse condition. Once I found folks in it. Cops said basically nothing would happen to them if I tried to pursue anything so I didn't do anything because they were i…

You guys really need to move to nicer areas.

The nicer areas are where the best cars to steal are located.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#42

Post by varenc »

nostromo wrote: post #3

Some people don't know that you absolutely are allowed to take back your stolen property. You don't need to involve the police unless you want to. Repo folks do this all the time. Keep an extra key for your car at home and put an Airtag in your car. If it's stolen, just go get it back when it's safe to do so. Calling the police in most American cities won't get you far. They usually can't pursue a speeding car anymor…

> ... put an AirTag in your car

After your car is stolen and the AirTag is separated from your phone, you have ~12 hours before it starts randomly beeping every time it detects motion, alerting the thief to its presence. Or if the thief has an iPhone they'll get a notification that "An AirTag is traveling with you" soon after they steal it.

AirTags are great but sadly I feel like they're not great for this use case. Though definitely better than nothing. (IMHO there's a fundamental conflict between preventing stalking and tracking stolen goods. The result is they're not great for either use case)

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#44

Post by yupyup54133 »

nostromo wrote: post #3

Some people don't know that you absolutely are allowed to take back your stolen property. You don't need to involve the police unless you want to. Repo folks do this all the time. Keep an extra key for your car at home and put an Airtag in your car. If it's stolen, just go get it back when it's safe to do so. Calling the police in most American cities won't get you far. They usually can't pursue a speeding car anymor…

If you do this the first thing you should do is drive it to a car dealership and trade it in.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#45

Post by Someone1234 »

null0ranje wrote: post #20
sbierwagen wrote: post #15

"Homemade"? This is a post on the official company blog of a commercial product.

The entire article had an odd vibe to it. Either the crime didn't actually happen, or it's just a distasteful example of turning the victims of a felony into a marketing opportunity.

The "victim" is a programmer at Blues Wireless. They reference a tweet but the Twitter account and writer of their blog are the same person.

The whole thing seems like an ad, or just a huge coincidence.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#46

Post by wing-_-nuts »

jsqu99 wrote: post #40
nostromo wrote: post #3

Some people don't know that you absolutely are allowed to take back your stolen property. You don't need to involve the police unless you want to. Repo folks do this all the time. Keep an extra key for your car at home and put an Airtag in your car. If it's stolen, just go get it back when it's safe to do so. Calling the police in most American cities won't get you far. They usually can't pursue a speeding car anymor…

are you allowed to show up armed, in case they are waiting for you? If you end up in a shootout, will you be considered the aggressor? Seems dangerous to me

In America? Yes. I can't speak for other countries. If you do get in a shootout, well, that's likely self defense.

Many will wring their hands over taking direct action, but I can speak from experience, the police and legal system don't give a damn about you or your possessions. I would absolutely be willing to risk it rather than go through the hassle of buying a new car right now.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#47

Post by nostromo »

abyssin wrote: post #27
recursive wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think it's so much worse than walking into a situation with unknown criminals, which most of us probably do on a consistent basis. I would definitely just go get my car back. I would probably try to do it at a time when there wouldn't be a confrontation, but it may happen.

What if the car is used to store valuable and illegal goods? And a big amount of them? Now you’re the target of both the criminals and the police.

Nonsense.

My car was stolen. I made a police report. It later turned up with some heroin in it. I called the police again. They thanked me, took the heroin as evidence, and went along their way.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#48

Post by mannykannot »

nwiswell wrote: post #36
gnicholas wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question: someone steals your car and you go to take it back. When you drive off with it, the thief's backpack/laptop/etc. are in the back seat. Can you now be prosecuted for theft? Obviously most people wouldn't want to hang around long enough to fully inspect the vehicle to make sure they're not taking anything that doesn't belong to them! My inkling, as a former lawyer, is that this would not be theft if you didn'…

> My inkling, as a former lawyer, is that this would not be theft if you didn't know the item was there Not theft, but still conversion. The thief could sue you for the value of the items. When a car is repossessed the chattels (personal items) have to be returned to avoid liability. There is case law establishing that if you tell the repo agent you have stuff in the trunk and he drives off anyway, that's prima facie…

This is not a repossession situation, so it is not obvious that the law is the same as it is with repossession.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#49

Post by awb »

abyssin wrote: post #27
recursive wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think it's so much worse than walking into a situation with unknown criminals, which most of us probably do on a consistent basis. I would definitely just go get my car back. I would probably try to do it at a time when there wouldn't be a confrontation, but it may happen.

What if the car is used to store valuable and illegal goods? And a big amount of them? Now you’re the target of both the criminals and the police.

Probably just the criminals. It should be easy enough to prove to the police that you don’t have the means or motive to acquire those illegal goods.

However, if you’re mixed up in illegal activity then yeah it might look bad.

Re: Car stolen with homemade GPS tracker in backseat

#50

Post by nickthegreek »

varenc wrote: post #42
nostromo wrote: post #3

Some people don't know that you absolutely are allowed to take back your stolen property. You don't need to involve the police unless you want to. Repo folks do this all the time. Keep an extra key for your car at home and put an Airtag in your car. If it's stolen, just go get it back when it's safe to do so. Calling the police in most American cities won't get you far. They usually can't pursue a speeding car anymor…

> ... put an AirTag in your car After your car is stolen and the AirTag is separated from your phone, you have ~12 hours before it starts randomly beeping every time it detects motion, alerting the thief to its presence. Or if the thief has an iPhone they'll get a notification that "An AirTag is traveling with you" soon after they steal it. AirTags are great but sadly I feel like they're not great for this use case.…

If the airtag is even somewhat well hidden, they would probably just dump the car instead of spending hours looking for it. $30 is a pretty cheap extra deterrent.
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