Submission + - Robbery Suspects Caught Via GPS (sphere.com)
TechnologyResource writes: Apparently GPS isn't just for the geographically challenged anymore. Just last week, the FBI and local police were able to track down suspects in a suburban Chicago bank robbery thanks to two credit-card-sized Global Positioning System devices that had been stuffed in with the stolen cash. Debbie Jemison, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Bankers Association in Springfield, said she first started hearing about use of the GPS devices about two years ago, but this was the first time in Illinois "we are aware of" in which they were used to solve a bank robbery. Last week's robbery, according to the FBI affidavit, took place around 10:40 a.m. Dec. 30 at the TCF Bank on Torrence Avenue in Calumet City, Ill., in Cook County. One robber, about 6 feet tall, clad in a black hooded jacket, dark skull cap and scarf over his face, walked up to the teller with a small pistol and said, "Don't push any buttons," according to the eight-page affidavit. Moments later, a second robber, about 5-foot-9 and wearing a tight-fitting mask, jumped over the counter and gathered the money, which included two GPS devices, according to the affidavit. A third man was involved in the planning of the robbery, according to court papers. By 11 a.m., the FBI had "identified the approximate location of the tracking devices," the affidavit said. Police went to a home on Wabash Avenue in Dolton and spotted a dark-colored ski mask and dark clothing inside a car. The FBI then pinpointed a home with tracking devices and found one of the suspects inside. Another one had been picked up on the street a short time before, and a third was caught not long after, the affidavit said. Brad Borst, president of Rocky Mountain Tracking in Fort Collins, Colo., which sells the devices to banks for about $500 each, says he sees a promising future for sales. "I think there's a growing demand," he said.
