Sept/Oct 2003

It seems Tracker is seldom out of the news when it comes to notching up significant landmarks, but the latest is certainly worthy of note. The company says it has just helped retrieve its ten thousandth stolen vehicle. It was a Mercedes-Benz SL500 worth £80,000 (not, we assume, the one in our picture), and was recovered by police within seven hours of being stolen.

Worryingly, Tracker reports that on average 41 per cent of vehicles recovered by its silent tracking system have been taken with the owner's keys. The national average figure is 12 per cent, but has risen 50 per cent in the last four years. Now Tracker has joined forces with the Home Office to launch an initiative called Key Aware, alerting vehicle owners to the fact that thieves increasingly steal keys during burglaries in order to circumvent alarms systems when they take the vehicles themselves later.

The Tracker system is now approved by 36 vehicle manufacturers, and was the first to be accredited by the Association of Chief Police Officers.