CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
How the AssetWorks Customer Care Team Used Asset Tracking Technology to Locate Stolen Truck
On Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 around 2:00 pm, Jesse Eliuk from Medicine Valley Transport LTD called AssetWorks Field Service Solutions Support Team with distressing news: his father, Randy, had his truck stolen!
Randy stopped at a supply shop at the north end of Red Deer, Alberta and left his black Ford Raptor – a truck worth over $100,000 – running. In the few seconds that Randy was in the shop, his truck was driving away.
Fortunately for Randy and Jesse, the truck was equipped with AssetWorks vehicle tracking technology so they could track the location of this valuable truck. Jesse called AssetWorks Customer Care, and Sunny and Manuel, AssetWorks support representatives, attempted to track the location, but the GPS was only sending out location alerts once per hour! Sunny and Manuel knew that the wires must be disconnected and the GPS tracker was running on reserve battery power. Randy said that earlier that day he had an oil change done and the mechanic must have disconnected the tracker’s wire.
After an hourly GPS alert appeared, Sunny located the truck in a field just north of Blackfalds off of Highway 2A. Jesse called the police, but when the police officer arrived, two black trucks sped off, and the officer decided not to pursue a chase.
The police were on standby, unsure of what to do. They needed a plan—and fast! Manuel came up with an idea to create an alert that whenever the truck went more than 35km/hour, it would ping its location. After sending out a wireless programming update, the GPS almost immediately reported its location in Stettler, approximately 80km from where it was stolen. The Castor, Consort and Killam police waited along the highway for the truck, but it didn’t show.
The Stettler police officer said that the last GPS ping was near a house that was well-known to the police. When another ping went off by the same house, the police were granted a search warrant for the property. After their search, they found the truck ½ mile north of the highway, hidden in the woods with three men sitting inside it.
The police arrested the three men sitting inside the truck, and luckily it had no damages after its 130 km journey with the alleged thieves.
“We definitely wouldn’t have got the truck without them. The idea that Manuel had to send the 35km/hr alerts was smart, and nobody else would’ve thought of that. The police were thankful for all the help.” — Jesse Eliuk, President, Medicine Valley Transport Ltd.
Manuel was on the phone with Jesse all night until the police found the truck. “It would have been best if it was tracking the GPS all the time, but instead they didn’t have to have a police chase or flatten the tires on the truck,” says Jesse.
After the truck was stolen, the thieves ditched Randy’s cell phone in Red Deer almost immediately. Most criminals know that mobile applications, like the Find My Phone app, can be used to track them, but, in this case, they didn’t realize that the AssetWorks Customer Care team was watching.
Stories like Jesse and Randy’s show the importance of asset tracking technology today. To learn more about protecting your valuable assets with asset tracking technology, click here.
About AssetWorks
AssetWorks is a leading supplier of Fleet Management software, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software, Field Service Solutions and Automated Fueling Systems in North America, with more than 550 software customers, including private fleet operators as well as City, County, State and Federal organizations that manage large fleets. AssetWorks solutions enable fleet organizations of all sizes to improve maintenance practices, streamline operations, and improve accountability for mission-critical transportation assets. For more information, please visit www.assetworks.com
Share This:
Canada’s Advantage as the World’s Demand for Plastic Continues to Grow