news
Tracking device saves more than cars

Montreal Gazette
Editorial
Bill Brownstein
11/29/2001
Boomerang Tracking is in the business of putting the brakes on car theft. And business has been booming for the Montreal company, which has developed a cellular-phone-based tracking device - concealed in the vehicle - to locate the car if stolen.

But little did Boomerang boss Peter Lashchuk expect that police would be seeking his company''s services in more life-threatening situations.

Late last week, a Boomerang monitor received a call on the company''s stolen-car hotline from the Sûreté du Québec, seeking assistance to locate a Montreal man. The man''s wife just returned home from work and discovered a suicide note that he had left.

The woman was, understandably, hysterical. She immediately notified the SQ, and while giving a description of her husband''s car, she happened to mention that it was equipped with the Boomerang tracking device.

Lashchuk, who also monitors calls to the hotline, got in touch with the SQ to make sure their request was legit. "To avoid the whole sticky issue of rights violations by delving into people''s privacy, we have to be very prudent," he said. "We will not even track a car unless the police have reported it stolen. And when we find the car, we give the information first to the police."

After the SQ officer explained the situation to Lashchuk, he did a general, first location check and determined that the vehicle was 90 kilometres away, in a resort community in the Laurentians. But to get the specific whereabouts of the vehicle, a Boomerang tracking technician would have to be dispatched to the community.

Time was of the essence. The SQ hooked up with a Boomerang tracker in Laval and provided a high-speed escort to the Laurentians.

No sooner did the tracker arrive in the Laurentians than he was able to pinpoint the exact location of the vehicle, in the parking lot of a motel.

The SQ officers established which motel room had been rented by the man and burst in. They found an empty vial of tranquilizers and a vodka bottle. Then they found the man with a rope around his neck. He was trying to hang himself from a light fixture on the ceiling.

"It was really hairy but they saved him," Lashchuk said. "The SQ called back to thank us and told us that the man is in therapy now and doing well."

This wasn''t the first time a Boomerang tracking device had been deployed to prevent a suicide.

Last summer, another Montreal woman returned home from work to find a suicide note from her husband. Lashchuk was able to locate the man''s vehicle, but feared the worst.

"The location we had was next to the Champlain Bridge, and we had assumed the fellow had parked his car there and had probably jumped from the bridge," Lashchuk said.

Fortunately, the car was actually in a motel parking lot close to the bridge. The man was in a motel room and police were able to prevent him from killing himself.

This is not exactly the sort of drama Lashchuk had envisioned when he and partners started Boomerang four years ago. Because Lashchuk was already involved in telecommunications - he runs Cellular One - he had been approached by local inventor André Boulay about investing in his unique auto-monitoring system.

Lashchuk was intrigued, and his hunch has paid off. Since starting operations, Boomerang has been credited with recovering 1,400 vehicles with a street value of $62 million.

As a consequence, Boomerang will be setting up shop in the U.S. within six months.

More than 75,000 cars in Canada are now outfitted with the Boomerang tracking device. In fact, most Canadian insurance companies not only offer rebates to drivers with the unit but make it mandatory for vehicles in certain high-risk categories (such as SUVs, vans and foreign exotica).

The device, with installation, will set consumers back about $290, while the monitoring charge is roughly $10 per month - although that is generally offset by the insurance rebate.

The Boomerang unit''s signal can be detected anywhere - on ground, underground or even in ship containers - in North America.

On occasion, the signal from one car can also lead cops to a cache of stolen vehicles. Such was the case recently in Napierville where police found 22 missing cars while in pursuit of one Boomerang-equipped Blazer.

"Everybody seems to love us these days," Lashchuk noted. "Except, of course, the car thieves."
Boomerang Tracking Inc. markets and distributes the Boomerang® tracking devices, proprietary products using technology patented by the Company. The Boomerang, Boomerang2™ and GSM-based units are the central devices in a system that uses the wireless networks of major regional telecommunications companies for tracking stolen assets. The Boomerang Tracking System is capable of locating stolen automobiles, heavy equipment and valuable assets. As a result of its success, the Company has received the endorsement of members of the insurance industry. The Boomerang devices are available and installed through a network of authorized dealers in Quebec and Ontario. The Company's head office, research and development centre and manufacturing facilities are located in Montreal, Quebec, with regional facilities located in Mississauga, Ontario and Orange County, California. Boomerang is a registered trademark and Boomerang2 is a trademark of Boomerang Tracking Inc. The shares of Boomerang Tracking Inc. trade on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BMG.