GPS foils PlayStation thieves

A band of would-be PlayStation-delivery truck thieves in Australia had the rug snatched out from under them when police used the vehicle's built-in GPS to track and locate the stolen goods. The truck, loaded with more than $1 million AUD worth of PS2s, was taken from a freight depot in Sydney that the thieves had broken into. The group of evil-doers would have made off clean, save for the fact that local authorities were able to follow the direction and speed of the truck to the gang's suburban shed, where they had begun unloading the game systems -- clearly they should have picked up a few tips from Best Buy's dastardly villains. When questioned later by police, the leader of the ring was reported to have said, "And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for your meddling GPS!"

[Thanks, Ricky C]

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 23rd 2007 10:54AM]

And they would have gotten...oh they used that one.

Oh well...Well done Engadget!

[blackfeather @ Jul 23rd 2007 10:56AM]

I was more shocked to learn that $1 million worth of "PS2s" would actually fit in a single truck. But it's not a typo after all.

[Stephen Levinson @ Jul 23rd 2007 11:02AM]

1 million AUD is actually only about 880,000 us dollars. Not as many consoles as you probably thought

[blackfeather @ Jul 23rd 2007 11:07AM]

I was making a poorly worded joke that the consoles were PS2s and not the more valuable PS3s.

[Mark @ Jul 23rd 2007 11:36AM]

How is this notable? Most delivery trucks have GPS built-in nowadays. I thought that this was a post about a PSP with built-in GPS.

[Kurian @ Jul 23rd 2007 12:10PM]

Lol same here. i though he stole somes PSP with a gps attached.

[Zarniwoop @ Jul 23rd 2007 12:19PM]

That will teach those stupid crooks to steal anything that isn't a Mercedes Benz!
(if you don't get it, you don't read enough GPS tracking related news stories)

[injate @ Jul 23rd 2007 12:42PM]

at least they didn't run anyone over.

[gunrunforfun @ Jul 23rd 2007 12:48PM]

@#%! They did not use GPS to track anything! A GPS receiver gave data on its location to a wireless transmitter in the truck, whose signal they picked up on!

I'm sorry if you guys think I'm anal about this, but it's wording exactly like this that gives people who don't know better the idea that the "guvament" can somehow use the GPS handsets and small GPS receivers that consumers have to figure out where people are going.

GPS receivers receive! They do not transmit!

[Walter @ Jul 23rd 2007 1:51PM]

Oh yeah?
Well how was the wireless transmitter able to get data from the GPS if it didn't transmit anything? And home come my PDA can get the location from my GPS if it doesn't transmit anything?

Semantics works both ways! :-)

[YAY @ Jul 23rd 2007 3:15PM]

YAY YOU WON AN INTERNET ARGUMENT YAY

[FermitTheKrog @ Jul 23rd 2007 1:39PM]

Jinkees

[Walter @ Jul 23rd 2007 1:52PM]

^home^how