New Haven (CT) – Bank robbers can run, but they can’t hide because banks are now inserting GPS tracking devices into stolen bags of money.  Much like LoJack for cars, the devices give off a signal and help police home in on the money and the crooks.

Traditionally, bank tellers have put dye packs into money bags.  The packs explode bright red paint onto the money and hopefully the crook.  Now in some high risk areas, expensive GPS trackers are also being placed into bags.

Already the trackers have helped police catch a female bank robber within minutes after she robbed a bank branch in Super Stop & Shop in New Haven Connecticut.  Another female bank robber in Connecticut (what’s with all the female bank robbers these days?) actually got away after she found the tracker and threw it in the sewer.  I feel sorry for whoever had to retrieve that device.

Read more … New Haven Register.

Pacifier

Aug 23, 2007 16:33     

Kinda like that movie Pacifier were Vin Diesel has to go into sewer to get that tracking device.
Hammerhorn report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Faraday cage

Aug 24, 2007 01:03     

Can't the thief block the signal simply by putting the thing into a metal box?
marc report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Jammers

Aug 24, 2007 04:03     

So this means that you will just have to use a GPS/GSM jammer, as the nice robbers do here in Spain... as always, these measures are effective only in catching the more stupid robbers...
aitorbk report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Tech question

Aug 24, 2007 08:41     

Sounds like a great idea, but given the sensitivity of GPS revceivers wrt signal strength, will it really work? My handheld GPS loses track of the satellite signals in dense forest and definitely indoors, so it would seem quite easy for the bad guy to slip away by just putting the device in the trunk of his (or her!) car, taking it indoors, or whatever.
Hiker report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Nobody suspects the female villan

Aug 24, 2007 10:22     

Women robbing banks. Would be a funny tailgating story if the teller was a man. Crazy how our society has experienced so much role reversal. What does the device look like? A discrete stack of cash?
getrichquickvic report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

tampered

Aug 26, 2007 22:56     

just zap the damn thing or remove it and put it on someone else's cab
ownage report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Subway

Aug 31, 2007 04:20     

Just walk to the nearest subway stop and then take your time finding the GPS. I live in the city so thats how I would see it.
john report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0