GPS Devices Lead Authorities to Thieves' Home

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.'"

Comments

Re:So what if they were cell phones?

[ForestGrump]

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!