Vehicle thieves bank on GPS jammers

New Delhi: An inter-state gang of vehicle lifters has been noticed to use high-end GPS phone jammers to lift vehicles and avoid being tracked by the police. A team of South Delhi police recently busted the gang and arrested two persons in this connection.

The accused have been identified as Subodh Yadav, 37, and Vipan Kumar, 42.

The gang targets luxury cars from Delhi and NCR. The members of this cartel use the phone jammers to lift the vehicles. This newspaper did a ground check and found how GPS phone jammers are installed in parking areas in parts of Delhi and are also available online.

The police said the accused with the help of sophisticated tools such as software reader to read and replicate ignition and locking software and bypass the engine control module (ECM) setting of the luxury cars.

The team has recovered six luxury cars along with sophisticated equipment such as mobile phone signal jammers to steal and deal with stolen cars and cloak electronic surveillance to dodge decoy customer and law enforcement agencies.

During interrogation, the accused revealed the gang developed a network of engine and chassis numbers punchers, operating from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. They also purchased damaged vehicles from insurance firms and after punching engine and chassis numbers, sold them as second hand cars.

The GPS jammers are easily available in the city. They can be purchased at Nehru Place, Gaffar Market and Shadipur. Also websites such as Amazon and Indiamart sell these jammers. It is not costly; the price a GPS jamming devices is Rs 5,000.

An agent said, “The device can be bought at shops on paying cash. Once the customer pays the required amount, the device will be hand delivered at a pre-decided spot. The devices are sold to customers through a middleman, they will not be allowed to contact the supplier.”

He continued the price of the device is based on the area it covers. For example, if the device covers 25 metres area, it will cost the buyer Rs 40,000, while for 10 metre it will cost Rs 5,000.

The police said the real threat, however, is not known. For all you know, they said, criminals could use them to hide their whereabouts from cops, terrorists could use these devices to disrupt the GPS reception on an airplanes during in military operations.

Sleuths of the Anti-Auto Theft Squad fear these portable, battery-run devices might also be employed in kidnapping and other crimes involving GPS-enabled cabs.