Seattle Police purportedly received assistance from BMW to apprehend an alleged car thief by remotely tracking and locking him inside the very same vehicle he snatched. Authorities say the suspect was prowling cars early last Sunday when he found an unlocked BMW 550i with the key inside and sped away.
Around 5AM, the owner realized his car was missing and alerted the police. After contacting BMW, officers were given the current location of the vehicle by an employee. Police say they found the car idling in an alley with the suspect asleep inside.
From the SPD Blotter:
BMW employees were able to remotely lock the car’s doors, trapping the suspect inside, presumably while hissing something terrifying like “I’m not locked in here with you, you‘re locked in here with me” into the car’s sound system.
The aledged thief tried to unsuccessfully speed away before being booked by the authorities on charges of auto theft and drug possession.
While the city police blotter did not specify how employees locked the vehicle, BMW offers a service that allows call center staff to “remotely lock or open the doors to your vehicle as needed” through the company’s SIM card-based ConnectedDrive system.
[Source: CNET]
