Hidden GPS units and transportation industry smarts have turned a tractor-trailer theft into what police describe as a high-tech game of hide and seek spanning three states.
Since 8:05 p.m. Friday, Washington County Virginia Sheriff’s Detective Jamie Blevins has been tracking a rig that was stolen while the driver and passenger dined at a Glade Spring truck stop.
Thanks to global-positioning technology packaged with the $500,000 worth of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals in the truck, police were able to recover the trailer in Tennessee, about 90 minutes after it was reported stolen.
On Saturday, Blevins said similar technology built into the cell phones left in the cab of the black 2011 Kenworth truck suggests that it has rolled into Kentucky.
Blevins said he’d initially hoped that another GPS unit, built into the cab, could have led him to the truck. But the thief disconnected it.
“Whoever stole the truck was familiar enough with the truck that they knew to separate the (GPS) unit,” Blevins said Saturday.
The rig, owned by Batesville, Ark.-based Bill Davis Trucking, began its trek in Pennsylvania with a cargo of vitamins and lice remover, Blevins said. It was last seen at the Petro Stopping Center near Exit 29 on Interstate 81, where the driver and passenger stopped to eat.
“They were pretty sure the truck was locked,” Blevins said.
The GPS units packaged with the cargo eventually led Tennessee Highway Patrol officers to the rig, which was left by the side of a road with cargo intact, Blevins said. The seal on the trailer was broken, however, showing that the thief at least inspected the cargo.
The thief dropped off the trailer just before reaching an interstate weighing scale, Blevins said, to avoid having to stop for an inspection by highway patrol officers.
With the trailer found, Blevins said he next focused on the cab’s GPS unit. But the lack of a traceable signal indicates that it was unplugged.
Blevins said he next tried to locate the rig by remotely switching on the tracking chips built into the two cell phones left in the cab by the driver and passenger.
Those signals have directed officers to start scouring Letcher County, Ky.“We know the phones are in Kentucky,” Blevins said. “We just don’t know if the phones are in the cab.”
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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