GPS Stolen, think I found it on Ebay...

[patrickl]

Amazing story! Hope you get it back in the end.

@NiN^_^NiN,

Several PDA's have indeed got both a phone and a GPS (my brother has a Mio A701 which has both) and some portable GPS units (like TomTom) can work as a carkit (does not have a phone on board for that though). On the other hand I haven't heard of a portable GPS or PDA that can go into tracking mode, but it would be a cool feature.

[NiN^_^NiN]

All the tracking mode is when you send a SMS to the unit it goes into alert mode so it sends u the GPS co-ords so you can type them in on google etc.

the alert is when the cars turned off it will send you the last position the gps had or when it looses signal.

It updates u ever 1min or so depending on the setting

I myself have built this into my carpc using a old nokia 3210 where when it recieves a sms the pc will poll the phone and read it and if its one of the commands it knows it will do what it needs to do in my case i've got it to turn on a relay to disable the car and send a gps position of where it is.

I've got the same kinda thing i built at home aswell i sms home with a command to turn on the AC so its cool when i get home.

I got a DIY sms controller kit for $50 best $50 i ever spent

[patrickl]

A friend of mine once had a service truck of his company recovered with those GPS tracking things. They could completely follow where the car was going. They could even see where the tools where unloaded along the way. Amazingly most of the tools were already gone by the time the police got there, but the car was still fine.

[ChadTower]

Fleet trucks have had that ability for 10-15 years.  Of course, the units cost a hell of a lot back then, but pretty much as long as there have been car phones there have been GPS trackers in fleet trucks.  I worked with one of the guys a while back that designed the first ones... according to him, they were active and present in the trucks long before any of the drivers knew about them.

[Jess--]

nin do you have any details of how you hooked up your carpc with the 3210 or any code for it kicking around?

[NiN^_^NiN]

nin do you have any details of how you hooked up your carpc with the 3210 or any code for it kicking around?

They way i did it was through the serial port usinf a data cable but mine is very messy and basiclly have VB Script to get data from the gps program and send it through to my mobile

Easier way is the nokia SDK Kit

Nokia Forum Link

U can use this to create a program (if u know programming) for it to do anything you need using sms

It only supports older phones which are cheap to come by like the 51xx and 32xx series and abit higher up aswell

Here is a semi free Active X module
http://www.kylixsoft.com/products.htm

It allows you to send and recieve sms and read the first 10 people in the phone book it also adds the website to the start and finish of the message but if its to just control stuff its perfect.

There are quite alot of free programs out there i basiclly got one that saved text messages to a directory as a txt file and got VBSCRIPT to read that folder every min or so and then it would check the text see if it was a command and run another script for that command and delete the text file of the sms

For the non PC control i used hardware in a kit i got from a place in australia

jaycar Link

It does allow you to buy from usa if u really wanted it but u need to know how to solder

Sorry to thread hijack

[AlanS17]

He found the items at Maverick? What's that? And here's some evidence... you didn't leave it at Maverick. Ultimately, it's your word against his, though. In criminal court you need to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But in civil court, you only need a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, the jury think your case is just stronger than his. So even if it doesn't work out in criminal court, you can always have a better chance in civil court. That's what happened to OJ Simpson.

[Dartful Dodger]

I think it means the guy is claiming somebody else stole it and left the pieces there.  He just "found" them.

It also sounds like the guy is going to pay back the buyer, and return the GPS, so you can only sue him for any damage done to your car, which probably isn't going to be as expensive as the lawyer you'll need, and that's only if you win.

Prooving he didn't just find it might be hard.  I doubt the CSI team was called in over this.  Although melarky may still have some more cards left up his sleeve.



Has this been put on any news sites?

This is a great story, you should call your local paper.

[NiN^_^NiN]

But he found it should he had try to give it to the police or try to find who the woner was instead of selling it stright away

He actually knew it was stolen cause even if he found it that means it belongs to someone so he stole it and tried to sell it so isn't that a crime in itself?

[AlanS17]

If a misplaced item is recovered and the true owner can't be found, it typically becomes property of the place where it was found, not the person who found it... at least that's how I recall it from my law class.

[patrickl]

Lol, he "found" a GPS navigation device and he cannot find the true owner? 

[crashwg]

If he gets charged with anything it will most likely be "receiving stolen property" unless you can prove otherwise, it's the only case that will get anywhere in a US court.

[leapinlew]

Man... I loved this story. I'm from the midwest and around here, I doubt the cops would've got involved at all. Trial by ass whoopin. Some people need some sense knocked out of them, before they can have any sense at all.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I haven't browsed through this entire thread...but I just saw this linked on FARK (super high traffic site) and thought I'd share.

L.I. Man Finds Stolen GPS Device On eBay
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_008143808.html

[JackTucky]

Just read that too.  Is that you OP?

-J

[saint]

Slashdot

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/08/2335249

[dek]

OP is in Utah. Saw a clip on the news talking about this, figured it was the OP's story, but saw it was someone else.

[saint]

Ah, ok! Was wondering

[melarky]

Yeah, I saw that on Slashdot today, kind of funny.  Maybe I should submit my story

I don't have any updates on this yet, as soon as I hear anything new, I'll post...

[NiN^_^NiN]

Its almost as good as P-P-P Powerbook

New story called G-G-G GPS

[vide0bug13]

as a last resort, if you cant get him arested, cut his power, or mabe put super glue in his car locks, or give him an un marked box filled with roches or some thing.
be creative
hope you get your gps back.

[SirPoonga]

Interesting story.  I am mainly replying so it shows up in my unread replies so I can keep track of it

[patrickl]

Interesting story.  I am mainly replying so it shows up in my unread replies so I can keep track of it

Can't you just click on the Notify button?

Still waiting to see what the final outcome will be here too

[SNAAKE]

His brother's addresses are in my GPS too.

His sisters' are in mine.

 

[melarky]

I can't beleive it, I got a call from the Detective, he has my GPS sitting on his desk waiting for me to come pick it up!

I'll be swinging by after work to go get it and meet with him.  I always hoped this would be the way it worked out, but I always kept that bit of doubt at the front of mind to help soften the blow if I never saw it again.

Thanks for all of the comments on this, I will update this if anything else happens, but I think it's smooth sailing from here (and I'll put my GPS in my house when I'm not using it )

[leapinlew]

I can't beleive it, I got a call from the Detective, he has my GPS sitting on his desk waiting for me to come pick it up!

I'll be swinging by after work to go get it and meet with him.  I always hoped this would be the way it worked out, but I always kept that bit of doubt at the front of mind to help soften the blow if I never saw it again.

Thanks for all of the comments on this, I will update this if anything else happens, but I think it's smooth sailing from here (and I'll put my GPS in my house when I'm not using it )

WOW! Congrats! Now... sell it on ebay! 

[NiN^_^NiN]

Hey congrats man thats great news glad it worked out

What about the guy who stole it? something has to have happened to him saying he found it and putting it up on ebay stright away shouldnt go unpunished.

[ChadTower]

Awesome.  Sometimes the system works.

There has been a huge rash of car breakins in my town, almost all of them to get a brand new GPS from the dashboard.  I have no idea why think it's safe to leave an expensive item stuck to their dashboard in plain view.  The paper said something like 20 cars were broken into over the weekend.  How many people bought these things and are also dumb enough to leave them in the car?

[melarky]

Thanks everyone.  I have the GPS back in my possession finally

I met with the detective briefly and he shed some more light on the subject.  He confirmed that it was a kid, aparently he has had some problem with the law in the past (nothing as serious as theft, but has a lead foot and a temper and gets into fights pretty often).

He said he was sure the kid stole it, but didn't have enough proof to make it stick, so they are just going to keep their eye on him.  I asked if anyone else had reported the other stolen items he was ebaying, and he said no.  I told him I almost didn't report mine, but ebay required it, he said never hesitate to report these things (no matter how small they seem), because usually the theif never just steals once, and when he finally does get caught, they sometimes have a bunch of other stolen items that the theif can't remember where he stole them from, and if no one has filed a report, there's no way to get the items back to the owners (makes sense).

I plugged the GPS in to make sure that it still worked as soon as I got out to my car, and it came right up, but somewhere along the way, someone set a Password on user 1 (will have to contact the manufacturer and find out how to reset that).  Again, I'm really happy that I got this back, I never expected to see this thing again, and I can't believe I actually have it back now.  Thanks again to everyone for the comments and help.

[shardian]

I plugged the GPS in to make sure that it still worked as soon as I got out to my car, and it came right up, but somewhere along the way, someone set a Password on user 1 (will have to contact the manufacturer and find out how to reset that). 

But you are sure it is yours, right?

[ChadTower]

The user1 password is "all your locations are belong to us".