![]() 11/07/2014 at 18:48 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
The Washington Post !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that a Ford Taurus belonging to the man who allegedly kidnapped a nursing assistant in Philadelphia was located by police with the help of a GPS device installed in the car by the dealership. Somewhat controversially, dealerships have begun installing the locator devices in the cars they sell to people with bad credit, usually without the buyer's knowledge, to help the repo man find the car in the event the buyer defaults. (In Florida, buyers who eventually finish making their payments are invited in for a "safety check" where the device is secretly removed. In some cases, the device can be used to remotely disable a car if a payment is skipped.) Virginia police, acting on information that the victim's credit cards had been used in the area, asked the dealership to activate the device in Barnes' car, which they did. Police then located Barnes and the victim, who was in "reasonably good condition."