Thieves Busted Stealing a Package of GPS Trackers Meant to Track COVID-19 Vaccines; Footage Caught on CCTV Camera

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In an incident that could be considered a great example of 'Karma' being served expeditiously, two burglars broke into a major shipper's drop-off box and stole a package of what they thought were everyday electronics that they could sell. The incident was captured on the nearest building's CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) camera. What they stole, and proceeded to drive with around for days, turned out to be Roambee's GPS (Global Positioning System) trackers en route to one of the primary COVID-19 vaccine makers, for use in tracking shipments for logistics integrity. The thieves were brought to justice within weeks, and all trackers were recovered successfully. For more on this story, including the CCTV footage, please watch this short video.

The stolen GPS tracking sensors are designed by Roambee, a global supply chain visibility provider, as a part of its full-stack location intelligence platform. The sensors communicate directly to the cloud and constantly update real-time location, condition, and chain of custody of goods at an item level when on shipments or in storage, ideal for following time and temperature-sensitive shipments.

On July 6, 2021, the thieves were able to access the drop-off box, which included the package full of bright yellow GPS trackers. Tossing the package in the car's trunk, the unassuming thieves drove around for days. Utterly oblivious to the devices' application — and what was approaching them — the thieves held on to the package.

When the Roambee team in the Santa Clara office checked the shipment status on the package shipper's website, it showed "Not Picked Up." It was way past the scheduled pickup time for the day, and something seemed odd. After the theft's confirmation, the company's representatives reached out to the Santa Clara Police Department. According to the team, the officers were ecstatic to find out that the thieves stole GPS trackers. The police had access to the hourly location and movement of the package as the suspects clocked 761 miles over a span of 14 days around the Bay Area from the day of the theft, before being apprehended by the police without incident on July 18.

Vidya Subramanian, VP of Emerging Technologies at Roambee, said, "This is not the first time that the company has had its trackers stolen. In 2017, burglars broke into our office and stole GPS tracking sensors, and were busted within hours of the incident. However, the latest incident happened when the trackers were in transit, demonstrating the vulnerability of courier drop-off boxes. This incident proves that our technology works reliably and its significance for companies shipping pharma, electronics, food, and other high-value products, requiring a verifiable chain of custody that couriers or shippers typically cannot offer."

Santa Clara police are currently tracking the package's GPS audit trails through the company's web platform to trace the thieves' routes, potentially solving more thefts. It demonstrates how effective this innovative supply chain visibility technology is in improving the safety of crucial supply chains, in the U.S. and worldwide.

About Roambee

Roambee offers verifiably better supply chain visibility on demand, for on-time, in-full, in-condition delivery of shipments and assets anywhere in the world. 300+ enterprises are improving customer experience, service levels, product quality, cash cycles, business efficiencies, sustainability, and automating logistics with Roambee's real-time insights & foresights. More than 50 of them are the top 100 global companies in the Pharma, Food, Electronics, Chemicals, Automotive, Packaging & Containers, and Logistics sectors. Roambee's innovative AI-powered platform, and end-to-end monitoring solutions, deliver curated and highly accurate supply chain signals built on item-level, firsthand IoT sensor data and non-sensor inputs. The outcome is better multimodal ETAs, OTIF deliveries, 80%+ cold chain compliance, and more, including 4X+ ROI on supply chain assets by optimizing utilization and inventory levels. Gartner identifies Roambee as one of the 9 global supply chain technology companies in "2021 Gartner Tracking and Monitoring Business Process Context: Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transposition Visibility Platforms."

Media Contact

Premsai Sainathan
Sr. Director, Global Marketing
Roambee
[email protected]
+1 (408) 461-5221

SOURCE Roambee