To Catch a (Car) Thief

A few seconds after a guy parks his car, a thief takes off with it. Through the means of a device, the car owner is immediately notified of the theft via his mobile phone. He promptly seeks the assistance of a security guard, and both of them dash off to catch the thief. All these transpired in just a couple of minutes, and in plain view of fifty or so people — this writer included. It would have been extremely alarming if the said incident happened in real life, though, and had not just been a simulation staged by a company selling car security systems. It would have been exciting too if the "actors" weren’t such hams.

Presented to some members of the media and prospective clients on December 6 at the Power Kart racetrack at the Power Plant Mall grounds was Gotcha!, a vehicle security system. Besides theft-deterrent features, Gotcha! also has satellite tracking capabilities, thus differentiating it from other car alarms that merely make an annoying racket and rely on flashing lights to call attention.

Gotcha! is the latest product of Asian Navigation and Tracking Systems, Inc (ANTS), a company that specializes in what it calls location-based services, providing real-time information in tracking vehicles. ANTS claims they provide precise tracking information by utilizing the most comprehensive and propietary digital map, thereby enabling them to determine a particular vehicle’s location down to the street and landmark. All information are constantly updated and are available to its clients either through GSM or GPS technologies, the choice depending on how accurate the information the client prefers it to be. Of the two, the GPS system is the more accurate one as it can provide a vehicle’s exact location, as opposed to giving the general vicinity that GSM can only provide.

During the aforementioned presentation, ANTS demonstrated Gotcha!’s features. First of these is the system’s alarm functions. Besides creating irksome noises and flashing lights, Gotcha! informs the car owner of the attempted or accomplished unauthorized entry by sending a text message to his cellphone. So even when the owner is some distance off from his vehicle and thus can’t do anything to avert the theft, at the very least he is a well-informed man. Some low-life took off with his car, and he sure as hell knows about it.

Which brings us to another of Gotcha!’s features; the immobilizer. Upon receiving the text message, the owner can opt to switch off the car’s ignition through a text message also. The immobilized vehicle’s location information can be accessed with yet another text message.

Then of course there is Gotcha!’s tracking system, where a particular vehicle’s location can be determined and the information accessed through text messaging. Clients can also view the vehicle’s whereabouts through the Gotcha! website. All of the information is delivered in real-time. Or at least as close to real-time as possible. During the demonstration where a vehicle was dispatched from Rockwell to take a presumably undetermined route, Gotcha!’s website tracked the vehicle to be in Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue. By the time the vehicle’s driver was called through cellphone to verify his location, the vehicle was in Ayala Avenue.

The tracking feature apparently appeals to corporate accounts, serving as a handy tool to track company cars’ locations, and deters unauthorized usage. And the system is also useful in personal protection. If a victim is taken with his car, for instance, he can press a panic button which automatically sends a distress signal to the ANTS computers. His location can then be tracked.

ANTS vice president for sales Fritz Gaston says Gotcha! takes about half an hour to install, but is quite difficult to deactivate as it is buried deep in the vehicle’s wiring harnessess. Gotcha! won’t function if the ignition is off. However, Gaston says the last known location of the vehicle before its ignition is switched off can be tracked, and thus still a useful bit of information. Gaston also claims Gotcha! is compatible with cars already equipped with GPS navigation units or those with sophisticated alarm systems.

ANTS officials say law enforcement agencies have approached them for possible tie ups. Which is quite logical. Because if you think about it, a stolen vehicle’s or a kidnap victim’s whereabouts should be known by police agencies as well. ANTS officials say, however, that most if not all of the company’s current clients prefer to keep the information to themselves, not wanting to involve the police. Which pretty much says how highly regarded the law enforcement community is viewed in the country these days.

Gaston also admits Gotcha! is quite difficult to sell to people not particularly relishing the fact that their whereabouts can be traced, like husbands not wanting their spouses to know where they are. Not everybody, though, can have access to a client’s information. Subscribers are issued username and passwords, and they can opt who gets to know these vital infos.

Prices of Gotcha! system range from P9,900 to 14,900 with monthly subscription fees of P390 to P590, which can be charged to Equitable or Citibank credit cards. For that price, one gets a sophisticated piece of device to catch car thieves or other low-lifes. Ham actors are another matter, though.