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back to article Car net auction trio use GPS to steal back wheels

Three Japanese master crims were cuffed after using the GPS system of a car they flogged in a net auction to steal back the vehicle, Mainichi reports. An unnamed 26-year-old man bought the car on 21 December last year, and on 24 December company executive Hiroaki Yasumatsu, 30, and employees Takashi Shimizu and Takashi Murata …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Why just the back wheels?

    Am I the only one who read almost the entire article wondering why they'd need GPS to steal the back wheels off a car?

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  2. John Macintyre
    Paris Hilton

    he paid twice?

    So he rebid for the car, surely by ebay standards he's obliged to honour the bid?

    And as an aside, surely if the thieves were [kinda] smart enough to nick the car back they could pay attention and see that the new bidder happens to have the same name as the last bidder...

    Paris, cause surely she can't be dumb enough to do either of the above? Surely?

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  3. Andy Turner

    GPS doesn't work like that!

    Sure, the car knows where it is, but it doesn't transmit that knowledge to remote people. I expect the thieves fitted their own tracking device (probably using a GPS enabled cell phone), and didn't use the car's factory GPS at all.

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  4. Matt

    Double edged sored!

    I think the tech angle is a bit stretched here. I assume the vehicle had a GPS tracking system to track it in the event of theft. On the other hand nine times out of ten the vendor knows the buyers address so could nick it there anyway.

    Perhaps a better idea is to nick the car back and then post the victim a fake "you didn't pay your car tax so we've crushed your car" notice. With that method the lags get breathing space to re-sell the car to the next victim.

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  5. Ash

    @Andy Turner

    Manufacturer-fitted GPS transponder?

    I understand a lot of manufacturers fit remote assistance systems which activate on the instruction of the driver, when the airbag fires etc. Maybe this system had a manual override the supplier could use.

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  6. Seanie Ryan
    Pirate

    @ John Macintyre

    who said it was ebay??

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: GPS doesn't work like that!

    Standard GPS navigation units don't but there are plenty of other gadgets that do like this one.

    http://www.satwest.com/SPOT_Satellite_Messanger_p/gspspot.htm

    Even considered getting one for my next car to track it if it gets stolen.

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  8. Tezfair
    Paris Hilton

    I need new glasses

    http://www.satwest.com/SPOT_Satellite_Messanger_p/gspspot.htm

    Bugger, miss read it - thought it said G Spot tracker

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  9. Rhys
    IT Angle

    There are plenty of remote trackers...

    My boss had a pair of navman units fitted to the two Isuzu bighorns we ran, they'd send data such as location, whether motor running or turned off, if moving the speed it was moving at... things like that.

    One sales rep team leader was so addicted to the coffee that before a month was out the office knew the location of every cafe in the town he was working in since the truck would pull up there and stay there for 30 mins before moving off :D They could even program the computer at the office to warn them every time the motor switched of withing 500M of a logged location, so log in every cafe in town, and when the rep stopped for a coffee, he got a call from the office within minutes :D

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  10. John Dougald McCallum
    Happy

    Mr Nasty(aka Rhys)

    "and when the rep stopped for a coffee, he got a call from the office within minutes :D" now that is down right Evil.roflmao.

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