What has happened to the world? It used to be much easier to steal a vehicle and then either sell it off for parts or change the VIN to match what we want it to be so that we could get away with the crime. Before computers were put into vehicles there was nothing connected to anything online and if you stole a vehicle you were going to have that vehicle unless you were caught right away or simply by dumb bad luck. That’s not the case anymore as one would be thief found out.
The owner of a BMW 550i loaned his car to a buddy because he was getting married and wouldn’t need the car during the honeymoon. This car is one that has the technology inside that makes a huge difference in the driving and is connected in many ways. Unfortunately the buddy to whom the car was loaned was a bit careless and left the keys in the ignition. This was the perfect and easiest way for a thief to take the car and head off with it to wherever they wanted to go, at least for a period of time.
Once the owner and friend to whom the car was loaned, realized it had been stolen the Seattle Police Department was able to take action to make sure the car would be returned to the owner. In order to do this the police department was able to track the vehicle and find it was still running with the thief asleep in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. This tracking was made possible by the systems that are present on newer vehicles to make them much easier to track and find nearly anywhere in the world and thankfully this car hadn’t gone too far at the time of the report.
The car was found on a Seattle street and because officers contacted BMW corporate the car was disabled and the man was locked inside. In fact, once he saw the police on their way to his location he tried to drive away, but was unable to do so because BMW had disabled the vehicle to make it impossible for the car to be driven at all. This meant he was trapped inside the vehicle that he stole, which is humorous when you think about it and understand how cool it is that the system is connected in this way.
No longer will it be as easy as it once was for cars to be stolen and more items are becoming connected. Car thieves might have to look for a new line of work or figure out something else they want to try and steal that’s of some type of value. From the time of the report to the locating of the vehicle was only about 45 minutes, making this one of the quickest vehicle recoveries on record and a certain detainment of the thief who chose to make this BMW his target.
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