GPS units become hot items for thieves

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

BOARDMAN — Popular navigation units hanging from car windshields might be useful, but leaving one in a parked car is like giving a thief directions to steal.

“If you leave an expensive, well-recognized device in plain sight, then chances are good that it will get stolen,” said Boardman Police Chief Patrick J. Berarducci.

Throughout last year, his department and others in the area, like Austintown, saw an increase in stolen portable global positioning systems (GPS).

“In Boardman, we have a lot of people from outside the area passing through to visit businesses here. A lot of families have become dependent on [GPS] for directions, so more units are out on the streets,” Berarducci said.

GPS systems range in price from about $200 to the high-end models costing up to $800, said Rex Torbron, a manager at Doc’s Radio and Television on Market Street.

“It’s very easy to take the actual unit off the dashboard and store it in the trunk or glove box, and we tell our customers to do that because a thief can hit and run in a second,” he said.

It’s more difficult to steal built-in navigation systems because the bulk of the equipment is behind the display face and the cables that make the system work take more time to remove, Torbron said.

Once a GPS unit is stolen, chances of recovering it are slim.