EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
A woman's vehicle is stolen at an Evansville gas station and recovered less than an hour later, all because of an electronic ping, or tracking device on her cell phone.
The driver said she had to do a double take. She had just gone into the Thornton's gas station on Burkhardt road to get a receipt.
When she came back out, her vehicle, along with her keys and personal belongings, were gone.
"I stood where my car had been sitting and it finally resonated that 'My car is gone. It has been stolen,'" the victim said.
Police haven't caught the man who stole her vehicle, but they were able to find it because she had the iCloud app, a kind of tracking device on her phone.
"One of the items that she mentioned was in her car when it was taken was her iPhone and one of the officers that was on the run had the foresight to contact Verizon and see if they could ping that phone," said EPG PIO Sgt. Jason Cullum.
In less than two minutes, employees at the Verizon Wireless Zone store were able to pin point the exact location of the phone.
"It actually showed that it was still slightly moving, so they knew that it was in that area, and that we needed to get there quickly, and it was only a couple of blocks away," the victim noted.
"They were able to ping that phone to an apartment complex that was only three or four blocks away from the scene and the officers found the vehicle unattended in the parking lot," Cullum said.
With the use of the ping, it took officers about 30 to 45 minutes to recover the vehicle.
"I'm from Evansville and things like this, you don't think of happening, especially on the east side at 12:30 in the afternoon on your lunch break. You just don't think about these things happening," said the victim.
Although this driver went to the Verizon Wireless Zone store, if you have an iPhone or an Android, you can ping your phone from any computer.
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