Beeping Benz leads police to major auto theft ring

Montreal-made Boomerang sends signal from stolen luxury car “Jose Amaral of Bill & Son Towing unhooks one of 15 vehicles police sized from an alleged stolen-car ring in the Toronto area. One of the cars was found because of a cellular transmitter it carries.

The Globe And Mail

Karen Palmer

7/16/99

A tip out of thin air has helped police smash a major auto theft ring and recover a million dollars worth of luxury cars.

A cellular transmitting device installed in a Mercedes-Benz that was stolen from the Forest Hill area on Tuesday is called the key to cracking a crime ring suspected of exporting stolen luxury cars.

Detective Sergeant Bill Seldon said the transmitter lead police to a warehouse on Goodmark Place where they discovered 15 high-end vehicles – a few BMWs, a Lexus, two Ford 4x4 pickup trucks and a Mercedes worth about $120,000.

The transmitter, called a Boomerang, is embedded in the car. It hooks into the Bell Mobility network and allows police to track the vehicle.

Some of the vehicles recovered yesterday had been stolen and recovered at least twice before.

“These guys were stealing to order,” Mr. Ing said, The cars had been staked out by thieves, who followed them to homes in North Toronto and then stole them.

Det. Sgt. Seldon said the warehouse had been used to strip vehicle identification numbers off the cars by popping out the windshield and replacing the serial number.

“They weren’t stripped down; they weren’t torn apart, ” he said. “This wasn’t a typical chop-shop operation.”

He said trucks and been rented to transport the stolen vehicles. He suspected the luxury vehicles wher headed for other countries, where expensive makes and models of cars are not as readily available as they are in Canada.

Car thefts or thefts from cars make up about 42 per cent of police calls in 53 Division, Det.Sgt. Seldon said.
Salesman Larry Ing said the signal from the tracking device can penetrate concrete, said making it more effective than a global positioning tracker. It was designed in Montreal about five years ago, but hit the Toronto market only a year ago.

Mr. Ing said he has installed about 150 units for Mercedes-Benz dealers in Toronto.

Boomerang® is a registered trademark of Boomerang Tracking Inc. It's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec. Boomerang products are sold and distributed in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and in the Dominican Republic. Boomerang Tracking Inc. shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) under the trading symbol "BMG".