The rental agreement of a brand-new Porsche Panamera 4 E-hybrid turned out to be anything but pleasant. Fortunately, the car was equipped with a tracking device.
One of our customers in Sweden, a car rental company, rented out a Porsche Panamera 4 E-hybrid for an agreed period. When the rental period was over, the tenant suddenly became difficult to reach. Time passed, and the car was not returned, even though the rental company had repeatedly tried to contact the person who had leased the car.
- The car rental company became suspicious and contacted our alarm center, which initiated a search for the vehicle. It was quickly determined that the car was no longer in Sweden but had traveled thousands of kilometers. The position from the tracking device showed a city called Toledo in the middle of Spain, says Klas Wassberg, Business Unit Manager at GSGroup.
Challenging search operation
The search for the stolen Porsche would prove to be anything but simple.
- It was clear that the car was stored in what we assume was a garage with poor mobile coverage, and the signals we received were difficult to trace. However, we put the tracking device in monitoring mode and established an alarm signal that would notify us if the car was in motion, says Wassberg.
Patience turned out to be the key.
- After a few days, we received an alarm; the car was out of the garage, and we tracked the car's movements, and contacted the Spanish police for assistance in seizing the car. The police went out and found the car at the position we provided to them.
The Spanish police seized the car, and GSGroup's search team could inform the customer that the car valued at 115,000 euros had been found.
- This demonstrates what technology does for us in practice, when it comes to car theft and recovery of stolen vehicles, tools, and machinery. It also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between various actors to apprehend criminals and return stolen property to their rightful owners, says Wassberg.
