Cough Syrup Thieves Caught Thanks to a GPS Tracking Device
17 Jan 2017
Tustin, California police have used GPS tracking devices to help them arrest over 100 suspects. Thanks to GPS tracking, they have now been able to use it on pharmaceutical thefts as well.
This year, there has been a series of pharmacy thefts and police were able to catch a couple men who were suspects of these burglaries. They were able to catch the thieves after a GPS tracking device was placed inside a cough syrup bottle.
Denise Taylor, a police officer, received permission from the owner of the pharmacy to plant a track inside the cough syrup bottle. She then waited for a few months as the bottle remained on the shelf until it was stolen on November 10 in a burglary.
Tustin Police Department’s Lt. Robert Wright told the Los Angeles Times that they had originally had a department crime analyst investigate the neighborhoods as well as the days and times of the thefts before they planted the tracker in the syrup bottle to figure out possible patterns of the thieves. They concluded that the Tustin Creative Compounding Pharmacy would be a target. They were right.
Once the thief took the bottle from the pharmacy, the GPS tracking device went to work and started to track all the thieves’ moves.
After tracking the thieves for several days and gathering up evidence, the thieves were arrested on suspicion of being the culprits who committed last month’s burglary.
According to Taylor, it paid off. In 2012, her pharmacy was burglarized which was only a year after it was opened. In that particular incident, the thieves weren’t apprehended despite being filmed by cameras and taped on video surveillance.
Tustin police were able to use a GPS tracking system for the first time in pharmaceuticals, The Times reports, however, GPS tracking devices have been used previously to track delivery packages, bicycles and a vehicle which led to the arrest of over 100 suspects.
The Tustin Police Department states that modern technology allows them to hide GPS devices in a number of different items with their imagination being their only limitation. The plan to keep on using GPS tracking technology in the hopes that it will prompt thieves to reconsider stealing an item knowing that a device might just be installed inside.
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