Nov/Dec 2005

If you're going to steal a car, it might be better not to target someone who is testing a stolen-vehicle recovery system at the time, and who in fact helped to develop the system in the first place.

But that's what happened to David Thomas, a product manager at BT. He is project manager on the company's new BT Trackit system, which as you might imagine was fitted in his own car, an Audi A4. He had spent a day preparing production plans and testing schedules for the company's new vehicle security product.

The car was taken from his home at Kings Heath, Birmingham, in the early hours of the following morning, but thanks to the Trackit system, police were able to find the car within an hour. It had been abandoned six miles from his home.

Trackit is supplied by BT Redcare, the secure wireless data solutions business of BT Group, and meets the tough new Thatcham Category 5 insurance security standard. It uses GPS to locate the vehicle, and monitors its position and status in order to identify when it is moved without authorisation.

 

When such movement is detected, a secure BT operating centre informs and can liaise with the police to arrange for the vehicle's ignition to be disabled when it is parked to help ensure its fast recovery.

BT says the system can track a car across 27 EU countries.