Mesa Police Department 2001 Annual Report
News Article

Anti-theft tool helps cops find vehicle

by Paul Matthews
The Arizona Republic
January 4, 2001

            Less than six hours after Gilbert resident Jack Ludwig reported his Chevy Blazer stolen, Mesa police knew it was in east Mesa. An hour after that, they found it at a Mesa apartment complex.
By the wee hours Wednesday morning, Mesa police had recovered four stolen vehicles and had two men in custody, thanks in part to an anti-theft device that guided police directly to the Blazer.
“Any type of ant-theft device will be a deterrent to these people; in these cases LoJack was an extremely successful tool for the department,” said Detective Time Gaffney, and Mesa police spokesman.
          The LoJack system includes a transmitter installed in the vehicle and tracking monitors installed in police cruisers. The current basic system costs about $595 and nearly every Police Department in the Valley has the monitors except for Buckeye and Apache Junction, said John Gant, law enforcement liaison for LoJack and former Department of Public Safety auto theft investigator.
          The LoJack transmitter is activated as soon as a stolen vehicle’s identification number is entered into the National Crime Information Center computer. The police monitors sound an alarm when they are within five miles of a stolen vehicle, Gant said. The closer the tracker is to the transmitter the louder the alarm.
         “There’s about 300 tracking computers in law enforcement in Arizona,” Gant said.
Ludwig installed the LoJack anti-theft device when he bought the used Blazer two years ago.
“At the time I thought it was a good thing to do,” said Ludwig, 49, a home maintenance man.
          Since Boston-based LoJack opened for business in 1988 it has a 91 percent recovery rate, Grant said. Mesa police have a 100 percent success rate recovering stolen vehicles equipped with LoJack, said Sgt. Gary Van Kilsdonk, supervisor of the Mesa police auto theft unit.
         Ludwig discovered his Blazer missing from the garage of his home Tuesday afternoon when he returned from a vacation and called police to report it about 1:30p.m.
A Mesa patrol officer received a LoJack signal about 7 p.m. near Superstition Springs Center. An hour-later, he got another signal and found the vehicle parked at an apartment complex at 6436 E. Casper St., Gaffney said.
        As Mesa police watched, Kurtis Baker, 23, hometown unavailable, and a 19-year-old woman got in the Blazer and drove away, Van Kilsdonk explained. A police chase followed and ended when patrol officers found Baker and the woman hiding in a shed, Gaffney said.
        Baker told police they could find more stolen vehicles at the Quality Inn motel, 951 W. Main St.
There, police recovered a 1997 GMC, pickup stolen out of Phoenix, and a 1995 Dodge pickup stolen in Mesa. Another suspect, Cameron Mathews, 34, of Mesa, arrived in a 1999 Tahoe stole out of Gilbert,. Van Kilsdonk said. Matthews led police on a short chase before he was caught in an apartment complex parking lot in the 600 block of South Country Club Drive.
        Police booked Baker, who was previously convicted of theft and misconduct with a weapon charge, on one count of auto theft. Matthews was booked of possession of a stolen vehicle.

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