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The thieves did not get far with the BMW X5M before the police arrived.
In the middle of the night, a man wakes up to a noise outside his home in Lidingö, Stockholm. The sound is loud, deep, and above all close. He quickly realizes that this is the sound of his own car. A BMW X5M with 575 horsepower under the hood. In other words, it is not a theft that happens quietly.
– It is bold to enter another person’s property and steal something. But when the car you steal is a 575-horsepower BMW X5M, it’s a theft that literally attracts attention, says Espen Ranvik, CEO of GSGroup.
The car owner himself is probably not the only one who notices the BMW skidding out of the driveway in the middle of the night.
Looking out the window and seeing the red taillights as the car disappears from your courtyard in the middle of the night – it must be like a nightmare and something you hope never happens, says Ranvik.
Tracking technology gives police a head start
The questions quickly arise: How did they get into the car? Both keys are still inside the house. Now, however, more resources are urgently needed to recover the car.
The BMW is equipped with a tracking device from GSGroup. The customer calls the emergency services and tells them what has happened. A search for the vehicle starts immediately.
– We quickly get a position of the car and contact the police. Shortly after, they are able to locate and stop the car in Sigtuna, 50 km north of the theft site. The police then take the car in for technical examination to secure fingerprints and DNA, as this is a unique opportunity for evidence and further investigation, says Klas Wassberg, Sales Director Recovery at GSGroup.
Three different radio technologies yield good results
Since 1992, GSGroup has been working and developing tracking technologies, and a lot has happened in that time.
– We use three different radio technologies to track the cars that are reported stolen. This gives us the advantage of narrowing the area of the car’s whereabouts more quickly. As the police get closer to the designated location, we can switch technologies and start using the one best suited for detailed searches in smaller areas. We see that this is of great importance to us because it is urgent to catch the thieves before they drive the cars out of the country, says Wassberg.
Most cars are not found this quickly, usually gone forever, when they are stolen.
– “We suspect that there are professional gangs stealing these types of cars, and BMWs of this type are particularly popular, says Wassberg.
The BMW is a 2017 model and has a market value of just over half a million SEK.
