Ituran ‘smart device’ catches thief in Rishon

E. J'lem resident arrested for driving truck with goods that had been stolen from Yavne supermarket.

Palestinian car thief 311 (photo credit: Vice Magazine / MTV Productions)
Palestinian car thief 311
(photo credit: Vice Magazine / MTV Productions)
A resident of east Jerusalem was arrested in Rishon Lezion overnight Sunday on suspicion of driving a truck containing goods that had been stolen from a supermarket in Yavne minutes earlier.
The arrest was made possible when devices in the supermarket equipped with a chip designed to notify the Azour-based Ituran security company of unusual activities sent out a radio alert saying that someone had been tampering with the equipment.
The company had equipped the supermarket’s cigarette dispensing machine, placed near the entrance of the supermarket, and other devices inside the store, with the smart chip, which can also be tracked via GPS technology if the devices are stolen.
“We received an alert at 2:43 a.m.,” Haim Ozen, head of Operations for Ituran, told The Jerusalem Post. “We mobilized a security officer to the area. As soon as he arrived, he saw a suspicious truck in the area, and began following it, while alerting police. Officers pulled over the truck, and found stolen merchandise from the supermarket during a search.”
Stolen safes were also found in the vehicle, he said.
Ozen said the Ituran company can be notified to a theft in progress by any number of devices implanted with the special chip. “We can see the equipment moving if has been taken,” he added. “Alternatively, if someone is trying to disturb the device, it will send out an alert.”