Aluminum Thieves Caught with GPS Tracking Device
20 Dec 2012GPS technology, like LiveView GPS tracking devices have been used to bust bank robbers, catch manhole cover thieves, and now to apprehend aluminum bandits.
Again GPS tracking devices come to the rescue; this time to help police catch a Philadelphia man from committing the same theft twice.
The theft in question occurred in Langhorne, Bucks County when the construction company J.M. Pereira & Sons Inc. had a large amount of aluminum scrap stolen from their job site overnight. The owner of the company, Carl Pereira, insisted this would be a one-time thing. He had a GPS device installed in aluminum form on his site.
The aluminum form was later tracked to a scrap metal yard in Philadelphia. Pereira was asked by local police to identify the stolen aluminum, shortly after which Brian Pierson was apprehended. There was more than $13,000 worth of scrap metal stolen during the second theft.
Talk about taking recycling-for-profit to the next level. Scrap metal may seem like trash to some, but for thieves, they envision a profit. Many individuals steal scrap metal, such as aluminum, recycle it, and keep the profits.
Construction sites are seeing the bulk of the theft, though residences and other businesses are not impervious to the crime. The fact that the price for recycling scrap metal like aluminum, copper, bronze, platinum, brass, nickel and zinc only encourages thieves from pursuing this type of theft.
However for one Philadelphia man, the theft did not go unpunished. The GPS trackers led police to a red Dodge Ram pickup truck parked outside the scrap yard in the midst of selling his newest aluminum scrap. Pierson was arrested and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by unlawful taking. He received a sentence of 11 ½ to 23 months in the Montgomery County jail, which will be followed by three years of probation. Judge Steven T. O’Neill also ordered a restitution of $13,295 paid by Pierson to J.M. Pereira & Sons after accepting a plea agreement. The restitution covers the total loss Pereira’s company experienced from the scrap metal thefts.
GPS tracking allows police officers to catch the location of stolen goods, like scrap metal, and hopefully to the person who committed the crime. In this case, surveillance equipment helped determine Pierson was the one and only thief involved in the crime. Video surveillance at the scrap yard on Aramingo Avenue, Philadelphia, showed Pierson dropping of aluminum on July 17 and July 21. It was later discovered that he earned $773 for 1,460 pounds of aluminum on July 17 and on July 21 he was paid $739 for 1,716 pounds of aluminum.
The theft of scrap metal is rising, but with GPS tracking technology, the criminals aren’t getting away scott free.
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