The technology can work…
We hear a lot of hot takes about GPS trackers and how well they work/don’t work for recovering a stolen vehicle. The fact is sometimes thieves know how to completely deactivate them, sometimes they just temporarily disable them, and sometimes trackers don’t function right all the time. However, a story out of Texas shows how a couple was able to get their stolen Dodge Challenger Hellcat back after it was missing for a while, all thanks to the GPS tracker.
Check out a classic truck covered in rhinestones here.
The incident all went down in September 2021 and was chronicled on TikTok, which is why we’re just finding out about it now.
Long story short, the husband’s Hellcat was stolen out of the parking lot of William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. For a month there were zero leads. Some might blame the police for not looking hard enough, but go take a gander at the homicide rates in Houston and you’ll see why a stolen Hellcat isn’t top priority, just to keep things in perspective.
The couple took matters into their own hands, from what it sounds like out of complete frustration. After reporting it stolen, the wife said “they” deactivated the app which allows for the factory tracker to be used by the owner, apparently so the husband couldn’t go look for the Mopar muscle car himself. We’re not sure who “they” is, the police or Stellantis, but it doesn’t matter since for whatever reason the tracker was reactivated a few days later.
With the vehicle location in hand, the husband and wife set out to track down the car. They documented finding it in a parking lot, just sitting there like everything was normal. Only, the Hellcat had obvious damage to the driver’s side and more, so it had been driven hard and probably crashed. This is pretty much our worst nightmare, other than finding a beloved car in pieces.
Ultimately, the insurance company decided to not total the Hellcat and instead went ahead with paying for repairs. A long list of things needed to be fixed, including damage to the driver’s door, grille, front bumper, front fenders, tires, wheels, steering column, windshield, roof, rockers, trunk, rear quarter panels, and more. Considering how much Hellcats have shot up in value, it’s not entirely surprising that fixing all these issues was cheaper than totaling the muscle car.
Granted, this is a miracle of a story, so let’s keep that in perspective. That out of the way, this is why we’re believers in not only having a tracker in your nice car, but multiple trackers. Thieves often will study where the OE unit is and how to disable it, so keep that in mind. Dropping an AirTag or other tracking devices in the nooks and crannies of your ride provides another layer of security. Granted, it’s not a foolproof way of getting your vehicle back, but nothing is.
Source: The Sun
Images via TikTok
