How can a cell phone help catch a car thief? The Kansas City Star gives this recent example from nearby Overland Park, Ks. John Webb left his sport utility vehicle running with an “elaborate” cell phone on the seat while he went inside a home to get his son. Within seconds, someone had driven away with the SUV.
Quickly his son, 15, told him, “Log on, you've got the tools to track that.” An application on his cell phone allowed him to use GPS to track the phone. So Webb directed police in a three-hour chase. The thieves abandoned the SUV but took the cell phone. Webb then tracked the phone and alerted police, who converged on a parked, stolen Lexus. Webb knew that through his computer he could set off a loud alarm on his phone. “The officer said the girl was in the back seat just hammering on that cell phone trying to make it stop,” Webb said. Her two companions were arrested.