GPS

Three little letters that can spell the ruin of car thieves.

Earlier this month a man discovered his car was missing and so he went to the dealer he bought it from to find out where it was. The dealer looked the vehicle up on GPS, found its location and called the police. Shortly thereafter, the police recovered the vehicle and returned it to the owner.

The happy ending to this story — which will be even happier when the thief is caught — was the result of GPS technology which allowed the businessman to not only serve his customer but society as a whole. Crime, whether it is against person or property, diminishes not only the victim but all law abiding members of the community. The criminal who gets away with a crime today will be back to commit another one tomorrow and will continue doing so until finally caught and put away. Until then, however, the law-abiding, both individually and collectively, suffer from the law-breaker’s predations.

Besides catching criminals and putting them in jail, the only way to halt these predations is through deterrence and that’s where GPS comes in. The system allowed the businessman to locate his customer’s car and notify police of its location. The thief had abandoned the vehicle by that time but had it still been in his possession he would have gotten to ride in the back of a police car.

This should serve as a warning to car thieves and would-be car thieves that society now possesses the means to find them wherever they go. Wrong, stupid and dangerous to begin with, stealing a car is now an even riskier proposition for those contemplating doing so.

GPS

Three letters that can leave car thieves walking or, better yet, making license plates.