Gone in 20 Seconds – GPS Tracking Prevents Theft Horror Story

At 6:14am on October 31, a real-life Halloween horror story began for one Foreman with Hermanson Company, a leading mechanical construction contractor in the Pacific Northwest, where GPS fleet tracking saves the day.

Someday this will probably be that Foreman’s favorite story to tell, but for now it is the worst Halloween trick ever. He sure wasn’t laughing on this particular Halloween morning . In fact, he was shouting some very not-nice things at the thieves speeding off with his employer assigned fleet truck.

Gone in 20 Seconds

It happened so fast. While warming up his fleet truck in front of his home, the foreman’s wife stood on the front porch holding his lunch bag he had forgotten to grab on the way out the door. Embarrassed, he exited the truck to grab the lunch bag and thank his wife with a kiss goodbye. Meanwhile, a suspicious vehicle rolled by in the opposite direction and noticed the unattended vehicle. After a quick u-turn, the thieves jumped in the Hermanson company truck and sped off.

The Foreman saw the activity and ran from his porch right away, screaming “Hey!” and running as fast as he could toward the street. But it was too late: Both the suspicious car and the Hermanson truck sped away. Then he screamed a few more things we can’t publish here. The whole thing took less than 20 seconds.

Cue ClearPathGPS and the Seattle Police

The Foreman immediately called it into the Fleet Manager, Dave McNear, who got his team on the case. They popped open their live GPS fleet tracking system, pinpointed the truck’s location, and called the Seattle Police Department to guide them to it. The SPD were on the scene within 15 minutes of when the GPS location was called in. The hood was still warm but truck unoccupied. Total elapsed time from the time of theft to the police recovery was less than 45 minutes.

Here’s how McNear summarized the day’s event:

“Truck: $31,000. Recovered thankfully with zero damage.
Tools: $1,500. Taken, but easily replaced.
Teasing our Foreman: Priceless! We’re never going to let the poor guy live down
that this all happened because he forgot his lunch box.”

McNear has a great sense of humor about this. But who knows what would have happened if the company didn’t have ClearPathGPS fleet tracking? Who knows how long it would have taken the police to locate Hermanson’s $31,000 truck, what condition it would have been in—or even if it would still have been in one piece, and not scattered into 50 parts in a chop shop?

Luckily, they didn’t have to deal with any of those Halloween nightmares. Within minutes of the thieves speeding away from the Foreman’s home, Seattle Police were at the scene of the abandoned fleet truck, and Hermanson was able to come retrieve it. All because they have ClearPathGPS’s GPS vehicle tracking devices keeping a constant eye on their company’s vehicles and other assets. Better yet, thanks to the quick recovery, Hermanson’s drivers are all now 100% behind the company’s decision to implement GPS fleet tracking.

Plus, as McNear points out, the company got a treat of a great Halloween story to tell!

Stories Like this Thankfully Don’t Need to Be Horror Stories

At ClearPathGPS, we hear stories like this all too often from our customers. The fact is fleet theft continues to be on the rise. Though with GPS fleet tracking – of both vehicles and assets – our customers often share their ‘so thankful’ happy endings, and we are happy that our reliable GPS fleet tracking system is helping our customers truly protect their fleet and their bottomline!

At ClearPathGPS, we are focused on helping our customers improve their operations and bottomline. Our top-rated GPS fleet tracking solutions provide real-time data insights and tools needed to more effectively manage the vehicles, people, and assets businesses send into the field everyday. Can ClearPathGPS help your operations get better results? Let’s find out – request a demo or contact us today!