Tracking Thieves, or Teens Technology, the Stealthy Tattletale
By CHRISTOPHER MAAG The New York Times October 27, 2007
Initially, it seemed like an easy bank robbery. After stealing $7,000 from a PNC Bank in Evendale, Ohio, Kenneth Maples climbed into a white Ford pickup driven by his wife, Jewell, according to a police report. No dye pack exploded, no police sirens screamed in pursuit as the couple's truck slipped into the anonymity of heavy traffic on Interstate 71 just after 10 a.m. on Sept. 14.
But the suspects never had a chance. A Global Positioning System tracking device had been tucked inside the stolen cash, according to the report, allowing a small army of local police officers and F.B.I. agents to follow the signal from on-ramps and overpasses as it moved south into downtown Cincinnati.
Police put up a roadblock, closing five lanes of traffic. As hundreds of vehicles stopped, police converged on the suspects' truck, sitting just five cars behind the police line.
"It was incredibly precise," said Mark Fisk, a Cincinnati resident who photographed the arrest from his delivery van, three cars behind the suspects.
A technological revolution is making it possible not just to track down escaping bank robbers but to find missing things and people far more quickly and precisely than ever.
The change is powered less by new technologies than the artful combination of existing ones, mainly the Internet, cellphones and G.P.S. satellites. In some cases, the new devices linked to these systems can even detect a theft before it happens.
...