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GPS Devices Lead Authorities to Thieves' Home

Posted by Zonk on from the please-put-the-stolen-locatermabob-down dept.

Radon360 writes "A trio of not-so-bright thieves in Lindenhurst, NY stole 14 GPS position reporting devices used on public works equipment from a nearby township garage. Authorities didn't have to look too far to locate him or the devices, as one of them was still active and indicated the location of his home when it was queried. From the article: 'Town officials said the thieves didn't even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were cell phones, which they planned to sell.'"

5 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So what if they were cell phones? by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think they only do it when in dire need of your coordinates (like when you call 911).

    My (CDMA 2000) phone has an option to restrict the GPS reporting to 911 calls only, but it's not the default.

    Otherwise, it's probably a waste of resources (computing power/network data).

    It wouldn't be that bad. The phone already has to periodically allocate a channel in order report its presence to the base station. Tacking on a few extra bits (probably only when requested by the base station) isn't going to be that much overhead.

    As for computing power on the phones, these things can run reasonably complex audio codecs in real time during a voice call. That's a lot of spare CPU power when the phone is on the hook.

    --
    http://outcampaign.org/
  2. Re:So what if they were cell phones? by ForestGrump · · Score: 4, Informative

    The phone has a GPS receiver, but it's primarily designed to take a "snapshot" of the satellites and send that off to an assisting server for the actual number crunching. I'm pretty sure these assisting servers aren't cheap and the phone company wouldn't spend money buying these servers if they could sell you a new phone instead.

    Now, if you implanted one of these phones in your baby called 911 saying I LOST MY BABY! Then I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate to use the gps on the phone to locate the baby.*

    But what do I know, it was my roommate who worked in a cell phone shop. I worked on emergency dispatch equipment instead.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

    Grump

    *If child protective services comes after you, I didn't seed the idea!

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
  3. Re:what ever happened to bold thefts. by pafrusurewa · · Score: 1, Informative
    like the people who stole a prize winning garden gnome and took photo's of it at places around the world and sent them back to the owner.
    Did that really happen? That's awfully similar to one of the plot lines of a movie called "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain".
  4. Re:So what if they were cell phones? by Detritus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Many mobile phones have partial or full GPS receivers. It's one way to meet the FCC's mandates for E911 cell phone location.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  5. Re:It reminds me... by Cyberax · · Score: 2, Informative

    This quote is mine.

    But it looks like that I'm not the one who thought about it first :) I've found this quote in Google: "The really successful criminals never break laws - they make them", but I can't find its attribution.

    And there's also Mark Twain: "There is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress" :)