Thieves who stole more than 100 GPS tracking devices from a Silicon Valley firm were apprehended within hours after police tracked them down using the devices themselves. 

California police caught the criminals using software on the Roambee devices they stole, turning what should have been a heist into a piece of priceless publicity for the firm. 

"The moment we realised they had a box of trackers, we went into recovery mode,” company co-founder Vidya Subramanian told NBC. “We notified the police and equipped them to track the devices, and in about 5 or 6 hours, it was done.”

“It was picture perfect. This is what we’ve been gearing up to do, and we were ready for it and we executed.”

The two thieves were arrested and the contents of a storage locker confiscated. Aside from the stolen tracking devices, police also found drugs and a stolen photo album containing irreplaceable shots from World War II. 

 

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