28-May-2012 Source: LoJack
Thanks to a pair of services from LoJack Corporation (NASDAQ: LOJN) and its subsidiary LoJack SafetyNet, law enforcement agencies on opposite coasts of the U.S. were able to make two great saves this week, rescuing two young kidnapped children who were inside a stolen Lexus in Burien, WA, and an elderly Marshfield, MA man with Alzheimer’s who wandered from his home and was stuck in a marsh.
LoJack Helps Police Rescue Two Kidnapped Boys
In this dramatic recovery, the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System was used by King County Sheriff’s Office detectives to track down a stolen Lexus GS300 and safely rescue two boys (a seven-month old and a two-year-old), who were kidnapped by the mother’s ex-boyfriend. The children, who were seated in the back of the car, were with their mother at a library parking lot when they were approached by the suspect, who is the father of the seven-month old. A homeless man with gang affiliations and a history of domestic violence, assault and weapons use, the suspect approached the mother and tried to hit her. She fled to escape him and the suspect then jumped in the car and drove off with the children.
This incident led to the issuing of an Amber Alert and a report to police that the mother’s LoJack-equipped vehicle was stolen, which automatically activated the transponder covertly installed in the Lexus. Officers initially picked up the silent LoJack signal through the Sheriff Office’s Guardian One helicopter and the Washington State Patrol Aviation unit, then tracked down the vehicle and approached the car. Although the suspect tried to flee, he was successfully brought into custody. The children were returned to their mother unharmed and the vehicle was recovered undamaged.
SafetyNet by LoJack Service Helps Police Rescue Elderly Man with Alzheimer’s
The other great rescue story happened on May 21, on the opposite coast in the town of Marshfield, MA, and involved the SafetyNet by LoJack service, which enables public safety agencies to find and rescue people with cognitive conditions such as autism and Alzheimer’s who are prone to wandering and becoming lost. In this instance, the SafetyNet service helped local police rescue an 82-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease who wandered away from his home and did not return. Upon realizing that he was missing, his wife contacted the Marshfield Police Department and informed them that he was enrolled in the SafetyNet service.
The Marshfield Police and Fire Departments deployed ground units to search for him. Just 30 minutes after he was reported missing, police picked up a signal from the missing man’s SafetyNet bracelet and located him nearly one-half of a mile away from his residence. He was tangled in a marsh area at the bank of a river and not initially visible. According to police, if the man wasn’t located so quickly, his life could have been endangered due to him being tangled and the forthcoming high tide.
About LoJack Corporation
LoJack Corporation, the company that invented the stolen vehicle recovery market more than 25 years ago, is the global leader in finding and recovering a wide range of mobile assets including cars, construction equipment and motorcycles—having recovered nearly $4 billion USD in stolen assets worldwide. In today’s rapidly changing world, LoJack’s core competencies are more valuable and more relevant than ever as they are now being applied into new areas, such as the prevention, detection and recovery of stolen cargo and finding and rescuing people with cognitive conditions such as autism and Alzheimer’s. For more information, visit www.lojack.com, www.autotheftblog.com, www.twitter.com/LoJackCorp orwww.Facebook.com/LoJackCorp.