You may have heard of a boat chop shop. A boat chop is where thieves steal trailers and boats in order to sell off the parts. And it’s a growing trend.

For example, the Sheriff’s Department in Sumter, SC charged six people with allegedly stealing a 4-wheeler and trailer. The vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking device, which led police on a trail to what they believed to be a chop shop operation involving motors, boats and trailers.

Following the GPS tracker, police were led to an address where they then made some arrests. Police claimed that they were able to find a great deal of stolen items from another address where a few thieves were able to exchange a stolen bag (camouflage) that had items for methamphetamine worth $100 in it.

After police raided the home, they found a motor, boat and trailer which was already reported as stolen and other trailers, boats and items with altered serial numbers.

The two thieves were given a larceny charge for allegedly stealing the camouflage bag. They were given a grand larceny charge for the trailer and 4-wheeler theft.

One of the thieves was charged with receipt of the bag filled with stolen goods, receipt of $10,000 or more of stolen goods as well as operating the chop shop. The other was charged with pot and methamphetamine possession.

Many people don’t realize they are even able to have GPS tracking for boats or GPS tracking for watercrafts. These GPS devices are similar to what are used in automobiles but are made for small pleasure or personal boats and watercrafts. What’s more, they don’t realize these devices can actually give them the same benefits as they get with their cars.

When GPS tracking  is installed on a boat, it can help police trace and locate the boat in a matter of minutes if it is stolen. And, having GPS tracking for boats looks good to insurance companies which will often offer discounts to customers who have these tracking devices on board.

If you aren’t utilizing GPS tracking for your boat, now is a good time to look into it. If you have a boat or watercraft, you may want to talk with your insurance company about a discount on your insurance premiums if you do have a GPS tracking device for your boat.

Bike theft in the U.S. and around the world is big business and electric bikes provide tempting targets to would-be bike thieves. The problem is that bicycles are typically easy for thieves to take off with. GPS technology will not necessarily prevent the theft of electric bikes, but it will aid in the swift recovery of your bike if it is stolen.

Prevention is the Best Cure

Obviously, it is better to take steps to prevent thieves from targeting your electric bike. Most thieves are looking for easy targets. That means unsecured bikes they can hop on, even in a sea of witnesses, and ride away with. Using a physical lock to secure your bike is a huge step in the right direction – especially if you own an electric bike, which is a far more attractive target for thieves hoping to receive a payoff for their efforts.

Even so, investing in a high-quality lock for your bike, and using it diligently, doesn’t present all thefts. There are some thieves who like the challenge of secured bikes and some that will simply target an electric bike whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Unfortunately, bikes are notoriously difficult to recover once stolen. They are small enough targets that unless you catch thieves in the act and prevent them from taking the bike, the odds of you seeing your bike again are slim – or at least they have been historically.

One other thing law enforcement officers recommend is making your electric bike easy to identify. One option for this is etching an identifying number onto the frame of the bike. Another option is to use a scannable QR code on a water-proof ID tag – something very few people do. This will assist in the chances of recovering your bike.

Using GPS Tracking to Recover Stolen Electric Bikes

GPS tracking technology allows you to essentially track your bike if it’s stolen. You can follow your bike directly from your smartphone or a computer. This doesn’t replace locking your bike to protect it from thieves, but instead offers an added layer of protection that will make it easier to recover your bike once stolen.

GPS tracking works in two important ways. First, it allows you to track your bike if stolen. You can give the information to law enforcement who can go in and safely recover your bike for you.

The second way GPS tracking benefits you is by allowing you to establish a perimeter and notifying you whenever your bike leaves that perimeter. This allows you to recognize the theft immediately, rather than hours after the fact, so you can take action quickly – greatly increasing the likelihood of recovering your electric bike.

Now is the perfect time to protect your investment in your electric bike with GPS tracking – before the unthinkable occurs. Call us here at LiveViewGPS to learn more about GPS tracking for electric bikes.

The “Hey Tosser!” campaign is being launched in Australia later on this week where Australian politician Gareth Ward will toss a handful of bottles into Mullet Creek. For this campaign, 40 plastic bottles being tracked by GPS trackers will be tossed into lakes, rivers and harbors all over the state by the NSW Environment Protection Authority in the hopes of demonstrating how litter travels after it’s made its way into the waterways.

A lot of community members don’t realize exactly where litter goes after they toss it at bus stops, on the streets, and on the beaches and highways. This campaign will give the community a real visual of where litter ends up after it’s been discarded into the community.

Almost 25,000 tons of litter, according to Mr. Ward, was discarded in NSW every year which costed the state over $180 million to clean up.

Almost 75 percent of marine debris that was found by the CSIRO in Sydney Harbour, rivers and other surrounding beaches is generated locally and made of plastic. Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay, which are in the Sydney maritime area, were considered the worst locations with around 2,456 pieces of trash per 1,000 sq. meter being recorded, not including the litter that is underneath the surface.

A big priority of this campaign is to keep the environment clean and decrease litter volume by 40 percent by the year 2020. Additional content will be provided to continue educating the NSW community regarding littering and how every bit of it is noticed.

The location of where the bottles were launched was carefully chosen to ensure the message of the campaign gets to all NSW residents in all NSW areas.

A GPS tracking device on each bottle will help scientists track the bottles’ locations on a daily basis. Updates and the progress of the bottles will be posted up on the campaign’s Facebook page allowing the bottles’ journey to be seen by all community members.

Community members are asked to not interfere with the bottles’ journey. Every bottle will have a state on it that describes how important the project is and in case people find one and can’t get it back into the water, there will also be a self-addressed envelope inside the enclosed case.

All bottles are expected to be collected by the end of April.