Landscaping Business Uses GPS Tracking to Uncover Lawn Equipment Heist
22 Oct 2015Local Sarasota business successfully tracks down criminals following a major landscaping theft.
Two burglars attempted to steal tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of landscaping equipment, only to find out they targeted the wrong company. That company was ArtisTree Landscape, located in Sarasota, Florida. The company was already aware of the threat of a burglary and planned ahead by using advanced GPS tracking technology.
In the evening on a Sunday, two burglars entered the property of ArtisTree Landscape with a plan to steal the expensive equipment. They brought an ax with them that helped them break through a brick wall to gain entry. After breaking in, they began stealing everything they could.
The men took a pickup truck from the company in order to steal the equipment, as well as one of the company’s trailers. They also took thousands of dollars’ worth of lawn equipment, hauling it away in the truck and trailer.
Unfortunately for them, their victory didn’t last long. Jeremy Lepper, the account executive for ArtisTree, looked at their surveillance cameras following the theft to see how everything went down. The stolen truck had a GPS device that alerted him as soon as the events took place. He watched on surveillance cameras as the men broke a window in the office area to disable alarm equipment that helped them steal the landscaping equipment.
The thieves were there for more than two hours, stealing the equipment and anything else they could get their hands on. The following day, Lepper and local police tracked down the truck the day after the theft, using the GPS tracking device as a guide. They tracked the truck to Miami where the thieves were parked in front of a house. The thief was inside the home, assumingly thinking he had gotten away with the crime.
The GPS tracker helped police find and arrest Rauniel Quintero, who was in charge of the heist operation. The tracking device combined with the surveillance cameras helped catch the criminals.
Since Lepper installed the surveillance cameras in areas around the property where they weren’t obvious, they were not broken or torn down by the thieves in an attempt to cover their own tracks. They were crucial in helping to catch the criminals.
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