Tracker honours top vehicle crime fighters
The SAPS National Air Wing, Inspector M. Mosiane and Constable A. Mushi from the Police Emergency Services: Rustenburg Highway Patrol, have today (August 24, 2006) scooped top honours at the 2006 Tracker/SAPS Awards Ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria.
The function honours those law enforcement officers and units whose efforts, in using Trackers technology, have over the past year made a significant impact on the recovery of stolen and hijacked vehicles and have thereby contributed to the fight against vehicle crime in South Africa. Tracker is the only vehicle tracking company in South Africa to formally partner with the South African Police Service, with its vehicle tracking technology installed in some 1100 police vehicles and 42 aircraft.
The event, attended by the Minister of Safety and Security Mr Charles Nqakula who delivered the keynote address, the MEC For Community Safety and Liaison for Gauteng, Mr Firoz Cachalia, Tracker Board Chairman Mr John Newbury, High Commissioners from neighbouring States, various dignitaries from the SAPS and influential business leaders, paid tribute to the top individual police officers and units, as judged by Tracker and senior police officials, over the past year.
Interesting Tracker/SAPS facts:
*Tracker and the SAPS have successfully recovered a Cape Town businessmans vehicle 12 times over the past five years. Tracker submitted the case to Guinness in the United States believing it to be The Worlds Most Stolen Car. However, an official from Guinness replied that no suitable category existed for the feat but was certain that it was a world record anyway.
*Several years ago, Tracker and the SAPS recovered a stolen vehicle and discovered cash boxes on the back seat carrying more than R20-million. The vehicle had just been used in a cash-in-transit heist minutes before.
In addition to stolen and hijacked cars, the Tracker-SAPS partnership has recovered a wide array of stolen and counterfeit goods over the years including ice cream machines, solar panels, heavy-duty earth moving equipment, drugs, counterfeit fashion labels, illegal identity documents and passports and even wild game.
*Over the past decade, Trackers recoveries have saved the economy almost R3-billion in replacing stolen and hijacked vehicles alone.
*What does the following blockbuster film and famous book have in common: Gone in Sixty Seconds and The DaVinci Code? They both carry references to LoJack V the global leaders in vehicle tracking and Trackers partners in the United States.
*When Tracker arrested its 5000th vehicle criminal in 2005 the company never would have guessed that this person would be a woman. The suspect was running a chop shop in Southern Johannesburg. Tracker has experienced several incidents in recent years where women have been involved in vehicle crime ranging from hijackings to transporting stolen vehicles out of the country.
*Tracker believes that unless a specific vehicle is on order from a crime syndicate, criminals will often target a white vehicle. The reason for this is threefold: they are easier to respray, they are more difficult to track from the air (given how many white cars are on the road) and they blend in well with traffic.
*Statistics reflect that the majority of hijacking cases reported to Tracker occur while people are leaving or arriving home.
