How Safe is Your Stuff?

While it is very common to have your home kept safe and secure with a security system, or for your car to have an alarm and possibly Lo-jack, how do you protect your possessions that you store off-site at a storage facility? Many storage facilities in America are very secure and offer protective features like 24 hour coverage by a security guard or maintain video surveillance. The problem with that is that while those features may deter some from stealing from your storage facility, they do not prevent the most determined and skillful thieves. Worst yet, they have no ability to get your belongings back to you in the event that items are stolen from you. Police in Rogers County, Oklahoma, may have the perfect solution to help victims get their belongings back.

It’s a Sting

In a recent sting operation, police in Rogers County planted several GPS tracking chips among the various items found in the county’s storage facilities. While the GPS chips will not do much on the surface to prevent theft in the first place, they will go a long way toward finding the criminals, bringing them to justice, and retrieving your lost possessions. In this case, as in others, items that were stolen from the facility had GPS tracking devices located somewhere on the items. All the police had to do was sit back and follow the signal to its stopping point to catch the thieves red-handed with the stolen merchandise. As the sting continues, it is clear to Rogers County police that GPS tracking units are effective at helping to track down criminals.

Citizen Relieved

Local news reported on the sting operation by mentioning one of the victims that had her belongings returned to her. Penni Leach was relieved to know that the call she was receiving was not simply to inform her that her stuff had been stolen and would not be found. Instead, it was a call that provided the cure along with the illness. Yes, her belongings had been stolen, but the thieves did not get very far and would soon be apprehended. For Penni Leach, simple things like the childhood memories of her kids were not lost to faceless and nameless criminals that were able to get away from someone. Instead, she was able to rejoice in the return of her possessions, thanks to the GPS trackers.

Targeting Trailers

Apparently, the main focus of thefts with this sting operation was with trailers. Thieves would simply drive up beside an unattended trailer, hitch it up, and drive away, never to be seen again. Apparently, trailers can fetch a fairly good price on the market, so they tend to be easy targets for thieves. The GPS tracking device could easily be placed on the trailers to alert police to the possibility of merchandise being stolen. One report of the sting mentioned that a trailer only managed to go about 75 yards before being nabbed by the police.

What’s in a Chip

While this practice is becoming more common in law enforcement, Rogers County police are being cautious with information about the GPS tracking chips. There is a benefit to allowing criminals and potential criminals to know about the GPS tracking chips, as that knowledge might deter some criminals. However, police will not divulge too much information for fear that the potential criminals will begin to look for those devices while they are in the act of stealing things and either remove them or avoid them. The appearance of the Tracking devices is not intended to be for common knowledge. Whatever these devices look like, they are helping to put criminals behind bars and make things safer.

Getting the Trackers Yourself

The benefit here to using GPS trackers to make sure your stuff is safe is that it is not something that is relegated only for police to use when conducting a sting operation. The general cost of GPS trackers is going down into the price range that will make it easier for average citizens to purchase multiple GPS trackers and have them installed on many of their own items to make sure those items are safe. The smaller the GPS tracker is the better, and it is important to use these devices in such a way that they cannot be spotted easily by would-be thieves.

GPS trackers offer unique ways to catch thieves. It will always be a challenge to prevent someone from stealing from you. More satisfying is getting your belongings back and safe in your possession. If you are able to catch a thief in the process and help keep someone else safe in the process that is gravy. Police who use these devices are narrowing the gap between people taking advantage of trusting citizens and citizens who get the upper hand on crooks.

How Safe is Your Stuff?